- Avoiding scams and fraud
You can sidestep would-be scammers by following these common-sense rules:
- DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON – follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts.
- NEVER WIRE FUNDS VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM or any other wire service – anyone who asks you to do so is a scammer.
- FAKE CASHIER CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later.
- NORMALLY THE SITE ADVERTISED ON, IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY TRANSACTION, and does not handle payments, guarantee transactions, provide escrow services, or offer “buyer protection” or “seller certification”
- NEVER GIVE OUT FINANCIAL INFORMATION (bank account number, social security number, eBay/PayPal info, etc.)
- AVOID DEALS INVOLVING SHIPPING OR ESCROW SERVICES and know that ONLY A SCAMMER WILL “GUARANTEE” YOUR TRANSACTION.
Recognizing scams
Most scams involve one or more of the following:
- inquiry from someone far away, often in another country
- Western Union, Money-Gram, cashier’s check, money order, shipping, escrow service, or a “guarantee”
- inability or refusal to meet face-to-face before consumating transaction
Examples of Scams
- These claims are fraudulent, as the advertiser site does not have any role in any transaction.
- Scammer will often send an official looking email that appears to come from your site, offering a guarantee, certifying a seller, providing payment services — all such emails are fakes!
2. distant person offers a genuine-looking (but fake) cashier’s check
- you receive an email (examples below) offering to buy your item, or rent your apartment, sight unseen.
- cashier’s check is offered for your sale item, as a deposit for an apartment, or for just about anything else of value.
- value of cashier’s check often far exceeds your item – scammer offers to “trust” you, and asks you to wire the balance via money transfer service
- banks will often cash these fake checks AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE WHEN THE CHECK FAILS TO CLEAR, including criminal prosecution in some cases!
- scam often involves a 3rd party (shipping agent, business associate owing buyer money, etc)
3. Someone requests wire service payment via Western Union or Money-Gram:
- Often claim that an MTCN or confirmation code is needed before he can withdraw your money – this is FALSE, once you’ve wired money, it is GONE.
- Scam “bait” items include laptops, plasma TVs, cell phones, tickets – but could be almost anything
- common countries currently include: Nigeria, Romania, Ukraine, Spain, UK, Italy, Netherlands – but could be anywhere
- deal often seems too good to be true
4. distant person offers to send you a money order and then have you wire money:
- this is ALWAYS a scam, in our experience – the cashier’s check is FAKE
- sometimes accompanies an offer of merchandise, sometimes not
- scammer often asks for your name, address, etc for printing on the fake check
- deal often seems too good to be true
5. distant seller suggests use of an online escrow service.
- most online escrow sites are FRAUDULENT, operated by scammers
- for more info, do a Google search on “fake escrow” or “escrow fraud”
6. distant seller asks for a partial payment upfront, after which he will ship goods
- he says he trusts you with the partial payment
- he may say he has already shipped the goods
- deal often sounds too good to be true
7. foreign company offers you a job receiving payments from customers, then wiring funds
- foreign company may claim it is unable to receive payments from its customers directly
- you are typically offered a percentage of payments received
- this kind of “position” may be posted as a job, or offered to you via email
