It is a money laundering scam.
Money laundering is converting worthless money into real money.
Scammers target Craig's List, Auto - Power Sports - and Boat Trader, and other online "sell your stuff" site users in an attempt to get you to send them money.
Here is how it works:
They say they will buy your item, unseen, and have it shipped to their location.
They will pay you with a cashiers check, money order, or certified check. Others also say they will pay via PayPal or any other online cash-transfer service and ask for the email address you use for that account.
They say they will pay extra to cover the fees to ship the item to them via the shipper/agent they use.
They instruct you to send the extra money they send to the shipper/agent via wire transfer or prepaid money card.
You receive the check for the amount over your item and cash/deposit it. For the PayPal scam, you receive an email invoice from PayPal showing that the funds are deposited into your account.
So, you use your money to send off the funds via wire transfer or prepaid card to the shipper/agent as instructed.
.....then, no one comes to pick up the item.....
A few weeks later, the check bounces, as it was a counterfeit, forgery, or stolen and it takes many days for the banking system to process and find this fact out. For the PayPal/Online Money Transfer, you find out that the email invoice you received was a fake, there were no funds deposited into your account.
As the money you had sent was via wire transfer or pre-paid card, it is unrecoverable and untraceable.
You are out the money you sent, the bounced check amount, fees as a result of the bounced check, and can be held criminally liable for passing a counterfeit/forged/stolen check. For the PayPal/Online, you are just out the money your sent but the scammer can also attempt to hack your account.
The scammer has used you to launder the fake check or fake PayPal into real money, at your expense.
If any of the people reading this have found themselves with the fake check in hand, DO NOT CASH OR DEPOSIT IT.
DO NOT take it to a bank to get inspected or to have the accounts checked to see if they are valid.
DO turn over all checks and correspondence to the US Postal Inspector or US Secret Service office in your area. Have a police report filed for your protection.
You will probably be put on a "sucker list" that is sent to various scammers, and will be subjected to even more scam stuff. Be careful, if you receive ANY communications regarding money.
Things to believe, regarding this and similar phone calls:
• "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
• If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• You have not won big bucks from a benign benefactor, a pot of pesos from PCH, dinero from a doctor, a car from a caller, or a grant from a gracious government
• The tooth fairy really does not exist
• You have not won a contest that you never entered.
• Anything you read on the internet or hear on the phone is not necessarily true.
• It is illegal to ask for money for a loan or prize, before awarding the loan or prize!
• "Free Trips" are loaded with mandatory & costly extras, and you usually must give them your card number after listening to a loooong spiel at a hotel that might have bedbugs.
• Microsoft or a different famous software company, or one of their agents did NOT cold call you to fix your computer.
• The moon is not made of green cheese.
• The IRS will snailmail you, rather than phone you, if there is a problem.
• Jackalope milk is not an aphrodisiac.
• If you Vanilla Card, GreenDot, MoneyGram, Western Union, iTunes or use ANY gift/money/reload PIN-type card to send money to a scammer, the money is gone. In fact, as of June, 2016, it is ILLEGAL for telemarketers to ask for payment via these methods.
• You should beware of Geeks bearing gifts, specially if the gift is a wooden horse with termites, or a statement that your computer is infected.
• 876 is NOT your lucky number, and it will cost you money to call that area code!
• The number you see on your Caller ID may not be the number of the person who called you!
• The Do Not Call List works as intended. It is NOT a call blocker!
• If you fall for a scam, you will be put on a "sucker list", and will get many more scammy calls!
More information regarding those facts (and others) may be found at
http://phonehelp.2truth.com/facts.html
Remember to return here, to 800notes.com, after you look at any of the information at that site, either to post more information, or to let us know you avoided the scam.
You can help to catch their accomplices that are here in the US. If you receive a check in the mail it was probably mailed from the US. Take it and the envelope it came in to the post office and have them forward it to the Postal Inspectors. If it comes overnight by FedEx or UPS, call them up and ask them where to send it to. I think it still comes under the purview of the Postal Inspectors but I'm not 100% sure on that.