We put a vehicle up for sale on craigslist, and found ourselves target of a scam. Here’s how it works.

A “Seller” puts a vehicle, or something, up for sale. A “Buyer” contacts the seller offering the full asked-for price plus the “shipping fee’… to be telegrammed to the buyer’s “shipper”. For example, my price for the vehicle is, say, $1500. This “buyer” contacts me and offers to send me $2800 and instructions on how deliver the $1300 balance to his “shipper” because “it’s much faster” for me to pay the shipper than the buyer on behalf of his “client”.

Next day a pretty darned legitimate looking check written on a Washington DC bank shows up next day air via a legitimate looking UPS guy driving a legitimate looking UPS truck (asshole drivers)… for $2800 with instructions to MoneyGram the $1300 balance to Chuck Norris (I kid you not) in Palm Springs, California and be sure to check the “no ID required” box. And

DO IT RIGHT AWAY!!!!

So I Goggle up the routing numbers and verify the bank exists, it even has an eight hundred number… the account the cheque is drawn upon, is closed. The way it really works is to rush the seller into depositing the cheque and forward the funds immediately out of their existing account. When the cheque bounces you’re out the thirteen hundred bucks, the banks say so sorry “you took the money out”, and the “buyer” with the pronounced Washington DC accent is sniffing cocaine with your hundred dollar bills.