Connie: yes a classic fraud attempt. see this - http://banking.about.com/od/securityandsafety/a/cashierscheckfd.htm sailboatowners.com ('parent' to trailersailor.com) also warns of this when you place an ad on their site - HOW TO IDENTIFY THE SCAM - The buyer may contact you by phone, through an operator-assisted service that serves the deaf - If you receive an email it will come from a site that offers free email, like Yahoo, Hotmail, Outgun, mail.com, etc. - It will come from Africa, Europe, or the UK, although we have seen US and Candain origins lately - The buyer has limited English language skills - Will sometimes claim to be a vehicle/boat broker or dealer - Payment terms are often discussed in the first contact - You will ultimately be offered more than your asking price, then directed to send money to a third party by the way ... i still get folks trying to run this scam on me by offering me LOTS of $$$ for my old M15 (which i sold in 2009). :: Dave Scobie --- On Tue, 6/18/13, Conbert Benneck <chbenneck@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Hi Gang,
This is just a "Heads Up" to alert you to a scam that someone tired to pull on me.
It started when I put a"For Sale" ad in WOODEN BOAT for my Shellback dinghy.
The next morning I had an email from a "Mathew Crowe" ostensibly in England, asking if the boat was still available. I said Yes.
He replied that he wanted to buy the boat as a surprise birthday present for his son; how much did I want for it. I named him the selling price.
His reply was that he would send me a check for the boat ( I said I wanted a Bank Check). and he would then give me information about his agent who would pick up the boat and deliver it to his son.
The first thing that raise questions in my mind: He never asked anything about boat condition; trailer condition; equipment, etc.....
He said he was working in heavy construction on a big project in England, but he never gave me an address; or phone number or any other sort of personal details.. All I had was his email address, plus the email address of the party who was supposed to pick up the boat. "georgestewartautotransport.com", that I couldn't find anywhere in GOOGLE.
When the check arrived, it was for $10,000.- not the $4,200 I had requested - and it was a "Cashier's Check, drawn on a Federal Credit Union in Waltham, MA., not a Bank Check; my name had been written on the envelope in block print, but there was no return sender address - nothing. (It had been sent from London)
I am now waiting for his next email, but I haven't deposited his Cashier's Check, and consider framing it as a lovely example of how a scam is perpetrated.
May be I'll send georgestewartautotransport.com", an email and tell them to pick up the boat. If they show up, at least I can get some photos of their vehicle and their license number, to add to the information I have already supplied the Police.
A Cashier's check is worthless for payment. Money has to be in an account for the Bank to issue the check, but then.... the funds can be withdrawn from the account and when you deposit the check and get cash, two or three weeks later the Bank notifies you that the check has bounced, and you are now liable for the amount of the check that you took out in cash.
Is this a new version of the old Nigerian scams?
Neat, eh?
Forewarned is forearmed.
Ciao,
Connie