Is this a scam? (Craigslist)

[Rathji]

Never, ever do anything on craigs list that doesn't involve someone coming to your house and putting cash in your hand.

[Flames_Gimp]

take the cheque and when he asks for the difference back send it to him in canadian tire or monopoly money

[Flash]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

What would happen if you cashed one of those fake cheque type things at a place like Money Mart?

More often than not, the Money Mart employee who helps would be able to determine that the draft or cheque is counterfeit, and either wouldn't cash it, or, if they had the direction, they'd call the police and the person trying to cash it would be arrested.

If by chance they employee didn't recognize that it's fake, they'd have the persons personal information and then as Sample said, they'd go after whoever that was to get the money back.

[DownhillGoat]

Scam.

2 standout words - cheque, and client. The common scams can be read here:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

It appears to be a hybrid of 2 or 3 common ones.

If you want to be safe in a higher priced transaction, a bank (wire) transfer or an email transfer (interac) are your best
bets.

- - - edit - - -

See the last scam on the page. It's almost word for word to yours, albeit in better english.

[ken0042]

Bottom line- you are selling for one of two reasons:

- You need it out of your way.
- You need the cash.

Taking this cheque risks you not being able to sell it in a timely manor. While waiting for it to clear, you could lose a sale. Then there would be the inevitable fees from your bank.

As much as you want $2300 for it, and the best offer so far may have been $1700- that is exactly what they are preying upon- your greed.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Bottom line- you are selling for one of two reasons:

- You need it out of your way.
- You need the cash.

Taking this cheque risks you not being able to sell it in a timely manor. While waiting for it to clear, you could lose a sale. Then there would be the inevitable fees from your bank.

As much as you want $2300 for it, and the best offer so far may have been $1700- that is exactly what they are preying upon- your greed.

Lets not turn this around and make the guy selling the item the bad guy. Why do people like to use the word greed so much? It is not greed. It is called good business or maximizing your return. Please don't make that a bad thing.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

It is not greed. It is called good business or maximizing your return. Please don't make that a bad thing.

Yet when a company ups their rates everyone is up in arms about greed.

I think no matter how you put it "maximizing your return" or "greed" these people are looking for that in you so they go along with the scam and get their free money.

[Phanuthier]

I know this actual scam, cause someone tried it on me. I was selling my Foosball table on Kijiki a few years ago, and got a weirdo email asking if I ship. I thought "uh sure" and they sent me a cashiers cheque; for a $300 table, they gave me $1800 and told me $300 was for me and I was supposed to write a cheque to a chosen client who would pick up the foosball table immediately. This sounded really weird to me ($1500 for shipping for a $300 table?) so I took the cheque to the cops asking wtf... basically told the cashiers cheque was conterfeit. So, I wrote the guy back asking for his address so I could send the cheque back, and I was canceling the sale. Never heard from him again.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

Lets not turn this around and make the guy selling the item the bad guy. Why do people like to use the word greed so much? It is not greed. It is called good business or maximizing your return. Please don't make that a bad thing.

(A) I think when Ken used the word "You" it was not in reference to burnin_vernon. It was a generic "You". As in "If you go to the moon, you will experience low gravity."
(B) If someone has a stereo worth $400 and someone is willing to pay $500 cash and another $1,000 by cheque, I think we get into the "excessive desire to possess more than one needs or deserves" greed definition area if the person takes the cheque.

[Crispy's Critter]

the thing is that kijiji and craigslist were never meant to be an ebay style selling system, where there is transfer of funds and shipping involved. They were meant more for face to face transactions, so any time someone wants to pay by sending a cheque or money order on one of these sites it should pretty much instantly raise a red flag. (of course if a person hands you a cheque in person I guess it's up to you if you want to accept it or not, but at least you can get a read on the person a bit if they are standing in front of you)

[ken0042]

Edit- DA hit the proverbial nail right on the head.