El Dorado County woman loses cash in scam started on Craigslist
By Bill Lindelof, Sacramento Bee
A scam that started on Craigslist has left an El Dorado County woman out $3,500.
Roseville police report that the woman recently listed her car for sale on the website. A man who said he was from San Francisco told her he wanted to deposit money into her bank account to reserve the vehicle.
The seller provided the man her bank account information over the phone. The buyer deposited a check into the seller’s account. The check apparently never cleared before the man called again.
He demanded his money back because he said his daughter had obtained a loan for the car. The seller withdrew $3,500 in cash from her account and gave the money to a woman who claimed to be the man’s daughter in a Roseville parking lot. The bank later told the seller the deposited check was fraudulent.
Police said a banking source told them it takes two to seven days for a check to officially clear, even if the balance on the bank account appears to increase.
How could she be soo stupid to give someone cash back on a check that wasnt cleared. And why should anybody feel sorry for her.
One born every day!!
You would be surprised at the smart people who make dumb choices. I am a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Speicalist. I offer free advice on scams, fraud, and identity theft. Some of my own friends have been taken and then asked me after the fact if they should have taken a check (like above), given their Social Security number to a guy in Kenya on the internet, etc. I wish people would just ask first.
Nothing can be trusted anymore. Especially Craigs List. Someone from Nigera or somewhere put my house up for rent on Craigs List that I had listed for sale with a local realtor. It was very amusing dealing with this person about the house and why they were renting it out and how much they hated to leave it, etc. I let it go on for awhile then lit into them.
One very gross mistake in the article according to Clark Howard, syndicated consumer advocate. He is on KOWL from 2-4PM every weekday.
Very important. CHECKS MAY NOT CLEAR FOR MONTHS as all too many victims have found out the hard way. One of the most common ploys is called the Nigerian Scam, where a check you receive on some pretext, is deposited by you and then the scammer (thief) asks for a small portion of the check amount to be sent back to him after the bank allows you to write checks on the deposit. About two months later the bank notifies you that your deposited check didn’t clear and you owe them the money on the checks you wrote thinking you had lots of money in your checking account.
Yes the scams are everywhere of all types. I had a neighbor who took the bait and lost a fair amount of cash..to some crook from Nigeria. An old friend called one day to tell me he’d won $6,ooo.oo from some contest. When I asked did he enter a contest? His reply was no, that he was picked at random. They also wanted some cash up front before he got the big check. I talked him out of it.
I fell for a scam at the Reno Boat and RV Show. I signed up for a “free” cruise to the Bahamas,(this outfit had rented a table there and weren’t affiliated with the boat show). That was mistake#1. I was later called by this outfit that had timeshares in The Bahamas telling me I won the trip but they needed my credit card# for some small thing like docking fees and some other stuff, mistake#2. The more I talked to this lady on the phone from the timeshare co., they wanted to sell me a timeshare after a tour. I realized this was not a free trip at all. There were lots of expenses being billed to my card. Probably 6 Hundred dollars worth! I contacted my credit card co. and they stopped payment and issued me a new card. I’ll never fall for that again!
“I won’t be fooled again”,Old Long Skiis
These scams work on seemingly ‘smart’ people for one reason….Greed. If it sounds too good to be true… it Is.
Hey OLS, if you simply refuse to talk to anyone about time shares, ever, you’ll not only avoid a lot of illegal scams, you’ll avoid a legal one as well.
Yeah Copper I agree,
My “free trip” offer happend many years ago but I learned a valuable lesson. As TeaTotal wrote, “if it sounds too good to be true…it is”.I’m a little embarassed to tell that story but if it saves someone else from being ripped off then its worth it.Old Long Skiis