Craigslist.com revolutionized the classified ads industry and turned newspapers’ extremely profitable classifieds into a barren wasteland in some markets. It’s given us all the opportunity to list our used cars, apartment rentals and baby pets that need to given away all for free, but it’s also given scam artists an entirely new venue to try to rip off the American public. There’s a new scam on Craigslist and a number of consumers are getting conned for thousands of dollars each.

If you were to list a car, a new computer, or another item that cost in the range of $500 to $10,000 dollars, chances are you will be contacted by a number of “potential customers” who seem to be very excited to purchase the item up for sale and want to pay you with a cashier’s check. It might not even be an item you have for sale. You might be renting out an apartment or anything where someone would send you money because of a listing on Craigslist. They will tell you that the cashier’s check has already been cut for more than the amount that you are charging for the item.

The scam artist will send you the cashier’s check and your bank will cash it, even though it’s a bad check. Chances are they will tell you that it’s a good and perfectly legitimate check even though in all reality it’s almost certainly a fake. You’ll deposit the check, find the money in your account, and since you think you have their money, you happily send them the difference, you might even give them the item. It might be three of four months later before you find out that the check you were sent is fraudulent and then the back will take the whole amount of the cashier’s check out of your account.

The criminal now has the item that you had for sale and the money you sent to them on top of the cashier’s check! Chances are you won’t be able to track down the criminal and get justice, as they are often overseas and you’re just out of luck. If you get an offer like this on Craigslist, have absolutely no contact with the individual offering you the cashier’s check!



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