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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 21 Sep 2008 Posts: 1

hi!

i was trying to sell an item (stamps) on craigslist and I received a message. unfortunately I deleted it already, but it went something like this:

.............
my name is blabla, i live in st. petersburg, russia. the stamp collection you are selling would make my family very happy, so I am buying it right away. please tell me your contact adress, so that I can send my professional buyer who is going to ship it.
........

i received this message a second time with the "buyer" being from the netherlands....

what's the deal here?

thanks!

419Eater is my life Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 281

More than likely it's a check scam of some sort. I'm guessing you'd receive a check for over the amount of the stamps, and he want want to you wire the overage back to him..keeping some for yourself of course. Then 3 days later the check bounces, and you've been left with negative checking account balance. If it's not a check scam, then could be a bank scam of some sort sort. Where they give you a fake middle man that's there for your "security". If you had the message we could trace the IP and see where it originated. If you get another message save the headers.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Maxx's advice is right, except that sometimes it takes longer than three days for the check to be returned. Beware of any person offering you more money than what you're asking with the rest wired back.

You can read more about how these scams work at Scamwarners, here: http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

edit: fixed link

Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:50 am

Definitely a cheque scam. Which will include the shipping fees, which you'll be asked to send to the "professional buyer" by WU.