F $%#$ ing thieves

[theGinsue]

Be very careful with money orders these days. There are a lot of excellent couterfeit MO's out there (these are a real big problem for sales on eBay and Craigslist). If you go through your bank to cash/deposit it, verify how long it will take for the bank to be certain that it's legit and wait that period BEFORE you send out the item. What's been happening is banks are telling customers after 3 days that the MO is valid and okay, the seller sends out the item (usually to a PO Box or equiv - remember that UPS stores actually use street addresses now, not just box #'s). About a week later the person finds that their bank has debited their account for the amount of the fraudulent MO.

[The Extractor]

Holy buckets ..... gadzoooks.

[theGinsue]

Yeah, I had heard of this scam and later had an old school biker jacket for sale on Craigslist.

I got an eMail from a guy saying that he wanted it but was out of town for a while. He was asking if I could MAIL the jacket to his PO Box (in another city) -- he was going to send me a MO with enough $ to cover the cost of the jacket, postage, and "a little extra for the inconvienence". He'd get the MO to me right away and asked if I could send the jacket the same day I received the MO because he REALLY wanted to start wearing it.

I recognized this as the scam I'd heard about (some will even tell you to wait the 3 days to let it "clear" through your bank...which can actually take up to 2 weeks) and told the guy cash and FTF only. Never heard from him again.