Trade Scams and frauds
Certified Check Scams or fake Check Scams
These kinds of frauds are usually perpetrated on sellers of product in online classified ads and auctions web site. A buyer wants to purchase the item products and pay with cashier's check. In the last minute, the buyer makes an excuse why he needs to give the check with an addition amount of money, and have the seller send him the difference.
In most cases the shipping fees are also included on the scam cashier's check, but the buyer seller will be asked to give refund for the shipping fees later time.
If the scammers will success, they not only will get the item for free but also will get the seller or buyers tricked into paying the shipping.
The check turns to be a fake, but in most cases the fraud discovered long time
after the seller has got the money. The seller side as well, is full responsible for
covering the amount of the fake check.
To prevent these kinds of check frauds, it is recommended to check the issuing buyer bank (try to get advice from your local bank as well) before you accept the check, also wait until the check will be clear before you transfer anything to the seller.
Fake Escrow Services
Occasionally, Internet sellers are using escrow services; these kinds of services
collect and check payment from buyers. The payments are held by the escrow
service until all parties are approving the sale.
There are often have been some events of bogus escrow services operating
online over the Internet.
In able to prevent most of these kinds of scams, it is highly recommended to take more precaution to be sure that you never transfer anything to a buyer
until you got the cash from the seller in your hand.
That is, you either get Money cash from the buyer or you wait for the
cashier's check to be clears.
Ignore buyers that refuse to meet you as well as don’t wont to see your products in person.
Don’t accept to receive personal checks that are allowing buyers to pay your products off over time. If you are the buyer, always check that the seller actually owns as well as has the product for sale, also try and meet them face to face to see and check by your on eyes the item.
Shipping Scams
Take highly precaution regarding frauds when a seller try to sell an item or products from abroad and suggest sending his item to you via a currier company. Occasionally these kinds of deals are reported as of false, or the seller may regred and told the currier company or Western Union, that the buyer no longer wants the goods (in most cases a hard luck or tragedy story is attached to the buying regrets excuse), and is asked to return the balance of the funds. The sellers will take the down payment and vanish.
In some cases, the false seller are create a fake website to allow the buyer to look into the currier company, but these website are also vanish after the down payment was received.
General
Most of Scammers are usually post an ad for all kinds of items and published it well below the market price. Then the try to convince you to send them a deposit via Western Union or by other payments transfer services, and tell you that they will ship you the product, as well as that you can pay them the rest when that you receive your item, and you probably
will be very happy with it.
Other excuse they may give you that they stay in another country for business, which is why you cannot go to see the item or pick it up by yourself.
The moment you will deliver them the payment, you will never hear
from them again.
Also these kinds of payment transfers in Western Union, as well as others, not covers or offer security or any ways of tracing where your payment went.
Remember! If the deal sounds to good to be true, i.e. it probably is.
Feedback - Reoprt on Scams
If you know about any other classifieds ads Scams, please feel free to advice
us and share them with our site, so we can do our best to prevent from other
honest user, to be an easy trap for these scammers.
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