Classifieds scam

[ultiman]

I'm selling a set of Ultima brakes discs and callipers etc and received an offer which looks suspect. Reluctant to provide my bank details i suggested payment by PayPal. Unsurprisingly this was met with silence.
Offer as follows note the spelling. Be careful if your selling.

Thanks for the quick response about the product am buying from
          you,anyway the price is OK by me but i will like you to know that
          payment will be made by Check.  If this mode of payment is OK by you.
          Kindly send your information which you will like to receive the
          payment from the post man, so that i can instruct my secretary to
          issued it immediately

           Name to be on Check:.....
          Address where Check will be received by you:.......
          Phone Number's such as Mobile,Land line and Office number:....
          Asking Price.........

           Never mind about the pick up, it will be after you must have cleared
          the payment from your Bank Account.  Await your Quick Response so that
          i can arrange for the payment immediately.

[Steve_D]

Name to go on the cheque he will need to know.

Address to send it to he will need to know.

Mobile number would be best of the three but email address would be better.

He says pickup would be after cheque has cleared.

All the above would be required for anyone to buy from you so looks fine to me.

Steve

[ultiman]

Hi Steve
I hope you're well?
Its the poor spelling and grammar that gives this away and the lack of interest in collection. This is confirmed by the subsequent lack of response to my suggestion of PayPal which can't be reversed, unlike a cheque. Its unwise to give too many details to a stranger and I don't want my account emptied again so a bit sensitiveto scams.
Nick

[JoulesCanAm]

Smells like a scam to me, note American spelling of 'Check', certainly not based in the UK.

Had a similar one once, the check even arrived, but I just knew it was fraudulent. When I looked up the tracking it came from a different state than the buyer stated and the big trigger was it showed it had been intercepted by the CIA! I never even bothered to deposit it and never heard from the supposed buyer again either!

[Sahjahd]

Definitely a copy / paste scam, probably sent to every Gumtree advert; no specifics about the item or even the agreed price (one would also expect brakes to be mentioned). The cheque will appear to clear, then bounce a few days later.

[Steve_D]

So how does the scam work?
If the cheque has cleared into my account how can it be retracted?

If it can be retracted then no payment by cheque would be safe.

Steve

[ahas]

With a cheque when presented to your bank will show as cashed / as a balance on your account as soon as the bank enter it into your account. But it can take a few more days for your bank to 'clear' it - I.e ask the other bank to fulfil the cheque.

Therefore the cheque may bounce if there are no / insufficient funds in the payees bank.

By then I suspect the buyer will have hoped you have posted the item soon after you have presented the bank.

You will note some places where you could/used to pay by cheque would allow 7-10 days before despatching an item to account for the time for a cheque to properly process.

[GTRMikie]

If someone paid me by cheque I would not release the goods until I was sure the money was in my account, and I would make that clear to the buyer.

[Boosted LS1]

Maybe it'll show as cleared funds for several days before it bounces. I once received a £30k bankers draft and my account looked really healthy for a week :-).

The scammer may be after account details, name address etc to obtain identity theft? It's a scam imo.

[ultiman]

Yes, that's what I thought, bank and other details.

[ultiman]

Yes, that's what I thought, bank and other details.

[the av8er]

I think your missing the point.
There is no cheque !!! They will not be sending you one.
They are fishing for your personal details.
Name, address, email address, bank details. With this they may scam you or fish later on for more info to scam you later.
Never give out details.