« 10 books I’ve never read | Main | Got a 3% raise without my boss knowing it »
There is no deaf kid in Kansas with a bum liver
By Mr. Stupid | March 30, 2008
I listed a couple pieces of furniture and an iPhone on Craigslist recently. The furniture was nothing special, just some average stuff I thought I could get a few bucks for.
For each item, I received at least one creepy email that I decided must be part of a scam. It took a while and a conversation with a friend of mine to figure out what the scam was.
Before I tell you about the scam, here are the complete texts of the emails from the demanding buyers (minus the names/email addys):
Thanks for getting back to me.Am interested and i will like to buy this item so please do withdraw the advert.I will also like you to know that i will be paying via check due to the distance as i am located in Kansas.I will need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check.
1.Your full name
2.Your mailing address(Physical)
3.Your phone number.
I will also like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping,i will have my shipper come over as soon as you have cashed the check,Am definitely buying it from you and it would be sad for me to have the payment in the mail only to be informed of the its sale…..Await your response as soon as possible.Thanks
Hi, Thanks for the prompt response to my enquiry, I want to buy it, I would love to come and check it but My Son would be going for a Kidney transplant in the next few days and as a good father i have to be at his side with the mother. Pls do withdraw the advert from Web i dont mind adding $50 for you to do that,so i would be rest assured that the item is held for me.I should believe it is in good condition as stated.I will be making the payment via a Certified Check , which my secretary will send across to you. I’ll be picking the item from you, My Mover will be coming to Pick it from you once the Certified Check has been cashed. Pls I will need both your name and physical address along with you phone number to issue out the payment.
——————————————
Thanks for the prompt response, i’ll like to make an instant purchase right away, i will send a draft via my bank to cover the cost as am satisfied with the item. I will need the details of whom & where to mail the draft. It will be delivered by the United Parcel Service within 2 days. Please note ‘ups’ do not deliver to P.O.Box addresses.The require detail needed are : Name to be on check, Address to deliver the draft and your phone number in case i might have someone call you on my behave because i am deaf. Kindly delete the posting as am totally committed to buying from you to save me cost.
Each email shared some similar characteristics. The sender:
- Was a follow up to an initial email that asked if the item was still available.
- Had some form of hardship: deafness; son needs a new kidney; living in Kansas.
- Wanted me to remove my listing right away so noone else could buy the item.
- Would send a bank check.
- Was in a hurry.
- Would have someone else deal with me (shipper, mover, hearer).
I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to selling stuff online (I’ve bought and sold many items successfully on Craigslist and eBay before), but the problem with these emails was not immediately obvious to me. They just sounded wrong.
So I asked a friend of mine who used to manage a bank. Here’s how it would go.
A few days after responding with my name and address, I would get a check from the buyer. The check would be for the wrong amount, and the error would be in my favor. It might be for $100 more than I listed the item for, or it might be 10 times the amount (a “decimal place error”).
Being a good person, I email the buyer and tell them that they sent the wrong amount of money. Now I’ve taken the bait.
They would respond to me with apologies. They’d say since they were in a hurry, could I please just deposit the check and refund the difference to them, minus a small amount for my inconvenience.
This is where timing and my ignorance of the banking system comes in. I deposit the check and wait what I think is the appropriate amount of time for it to clear — probably 3 or 4 days. I check my bank account and the check shows up as “cleared”.
So then I send the buyer a money order for the difference, minus a little piece for myself. The shipper or packer or whatever never shows up. The furniture stays in my basement, the iPhone stays in my kitchen.
I wonder what happened; maybe I even email the buyer a few times. I never hear back from him.
About two weeks later, I notice that my account has been debited the amount of the original check. I call the bank and ask them WTF? They tell me that the check was returned with insufficient funds. Now I am out the entire amount of the original check.
This scam works because of two factors:
- Convenience — To keep you happy, banks will make a check’s funds available almost immediately after you deposit it. If your bank took 10 days to free up those funds, you’d find another bank. The funds availability policy of your bank has nothing to do with when the check actually clears. By actually clears, I mean the physical check is returned to the buyer’s bank and that bank responds by sending funds to the my bank.
The buyer’s bank is often a small credit union or a bank on the other side of the country, so it takes the maximum amount of time to clear (it can take weeks in some cases). Yes, in our banking system, checks still move physically from the depositor’s bank to the withdrawer’s bank.
So my bank tells me the check has cleared, when in reality it was only telling me that the check wasn’t a fake and it was being sent back to the buyer’s bank. When it finally arrives and gets processed at the buyer’s bank, it’s too late for me to recover the money I sent him.
- Greed — If the item was listed for $100, and I get a check for $1000, the buyer might offer to let me keep $50, as long as I send him the $850 difference. People want to believe that they can get something for nothing. I’m supposed to think I am lucky that I am keeping a couple of bucks without having to do any work for it.
I am way too Stupid to fall victim to my own greed and desire for convenience. I wonder how many times these work, though.
In both cases, I ignored the emails because the tone and directness kinda creeped me out. I sold the items to people who sounded sincere.
Topics: internet |
Share: Del.icio.us | Digg | Technorati | reddit