On 5/15/2016 7:55 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 2:41 PM, Dave Cole <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Most people understand what a certified check is. However you can >> always ask him if he will accept a certified check before you travel. >> > No, most people don't understand checks. They THINK a certified check > is as good as cash but there is a big scam going around where people > buy things like this with fake certified checks. They use very nice > looking counterfeit checks. These are even good enough to fool the > people at the bank where you deposit the check. Then some days later > you get a notice from your bank that the check is bogus and you are > simply out the money with zero recourse. > > So when some guy offers to give me a check for something I'm selling > on CraigsList I tell them I will hold the check until the bank tells > me it is good with could take 90 days (This is NOT the same as when > the bank releases funds. That is determined by a fixed schedule and > is some small number of days depending on the amount.) > > If I do accept a check from an unknown person I warn them to bring two > government IDs,their car registration and cell phone and then I shoot > a photo of them holding the check and all those documents. And their > car with them in the photo. > > But it rarely goes that far. If I just write "You may not know it but > counterfeit cashier checks are a problem." then I never hear from the > scammers again as they know their scam will not work. The scam only > works on sellers who think a check is as good as cash. All you have > to do is try and sell some expensive boats, antiques and whatever on > CL and you will get many offers to pay with fake checks. It is so > common that CL prints warnings of this on many of their web pages. > > A certified check only means that the account has enough funds to > cover the check. I can call my bank and stop payment on the check > before I put the check in the mail and the guy who gets it will have a > worthless check. > > Wire transfers are different. They are same as cash and not revokable > but banks charge about $40 per transaction. Western Union is also > same as cash too. > > PayPal works well for smaller transfers but the 2% fee is to high for > larger transactions. PayPal offer a good brokerage service and can > revoke a transaction in the case of fraud. It makes on-line buying > pretty safe. >
I have had good luck with Certified and Cashiers checks. There really isn't much of an option for anything else except cash without doing a bank to bank transfer and sometimes the seller doesn't have a bank account let alone Paypal. (Some folks still live in the stone age) I've paid for some pretty expensive things with Certified and Cashiers checks. That's the norm for real estate transactions. I do think you need to know who you are dealing with. Taking photos of them and their ID makes perfect sense. Paypal and Ebay are just ok. They will go only so far and then you are on your own. There is a time limit on how long you are "protected" with Paypal. If you don't physically obtain the item within the specified time limit, then your Paypal protection is gone and you are on your own. You need to follow the Paypal rules correctly or else they will claim that they are no longer responsible. (They will exit at the first chance possible) So for instance you buy a mill in January and the weather is too bad to move the machine. The time limit runs out and the seller resells or prevents you from picking up the machine. You are screwed and may end up suing the seller in order to recoup your money. I had this happen once and the seller didn't sell the machine (he tried) but he moved it and tried to hide it. The police found it and a civil court case ensued, (the prosecutor would not do her job - since it was an interstate transaction) which forced the issue, but that took a years time. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mobile security can be enabling, not merely restricting. Employees who bring their own devices (BYOD) to work are irked by the imposition of MDM restrictions. Mobile Device Manager Plus allows you to control only the apps on BYO-devices by containerizing them, leaving personal data untouched! https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/304595813;131938128;j _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
