Absurd Singularity

"i think with this i and his son can live as a family"

Awesome! That's a really powerful bag you're selling. :) Change the bag to magical heirloom, add in a little ass kicking and it's a whole movie!

For the bag to be 6 years old and still look as good as it does, it is pretty magical. ;-) And you can definitely kick some ass with the airplane seat buckle that it has in front.

I know you know this is a scam, but in case you don't know "the rest of the story", here it is. They'll send you a money order but it will be for more than you are asking. They'll make up some reason why and ask you to refund them the difference and maybe even keep some for your troubles. Here's where you really get into trouble. You take the money order/cashier's check that they send you to your bank. Your bank says it looks ok. You deposit it and the bank tells you that your funds will be available in X number of days. To be prudent, you wait for X number of days and everything seems ok so you figure a strange as it seems it must be legit and send the bag and the additional money. What the bank didn't tell you was that the funds are available but that doesn't mean the check cleared. A few weeks later you get a note from the bank that the check bounced and you are out the bag and the money you sent the scammer. The bank will tell you sorry that's how it works and there's not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up fedexguy. That's such a crock though on the bank's part. There should be some way to combat that.

Yeah, that's wierd because I thought the whole point of a money order was that it is just like cash - it doesn't have to clear. Like when you go to the post office to get one, you pay them cash for it - so it's not like a personal check. If it still goes through some clearing process what's the diff between an MO and a personal check? What up wit' dat??

Apparently counterfeit USPS money orders have been becoming an issue since 2005 so gotta stay on our toes. Plus the scammers are really after your money (by sending you more than your agreed upon price and making you send back the extra) and not the item you're selling itself so them contacting me about the bag makes sense. Fortunately their emails are still so freakin' easy to spot so dodging them isn't really a big deal.

felix, it still has to clear, it's just that the cash is held by an independent 3rd party rather than sitting in your own personal checking account. gives the person you are sending it to warm & fuzzies knowing that the money order won't bounce. of course this assumes that it's a legit money order. these scammers can take legit money orders and then change amounts, routing numbers, etc., to where even the bank can't tell the difference until it bounces.
And Ben, the way to combat it is A. either the bank doesn't release the funds until the check does actually clear but this tends to upset legit customers as they can't get to the money; or B. you just don't touch that money for about 4 weeks to see if the check bounces.