so im selling my 2004 yamaha blaster with a ton of extras and a guy from colorado wants to buy it for the asking price. hes sending a check and a shipping agent is gonna come pick it up. anyone else think this is a lil sketchy or is it just me being paranoid?

i would NEVER trust a check, a check does not represent money, cash the check before you let go of the blaster.

Yes, never trust a check. If he gives you the check and it bounces, theres a good chance he just bought your quad for 25 dollars.

+1!!!!

make sure it is real before you even let the blaster out of your sight

yea I plan on cashing the check before the agent takes it. one reason im somewhat ok with this is because the guy is sending the money to pay the shipping agent included in the check for the blaster so it has to clear before the agent will take it

yep deffinetly agree, i would tell him that he can make arangements for pick up as soon as the check has cleared.

"shipping agent is gonna come pick it up" this isn't sketchy though, my friend bought a used GSXR and a shipping agent delivered it to him.

Even with checks it can take up to 2 months to make sure its a valid check. Even tho the money will clear in your bank, they wouldnt find out if its fraud until like 2 months down the line and then you are responsible for the amount of the check, and whatever other fees there will be. That actually happened to a friend of mine who owns a shop. Except it actually took 6 months and $7000 worth of performance parts were sent, and he had to eat the cost of all the parts and the shipping. So be very careful with a check. And ive never heard of a shipping agent. I dont even think there is a point for one..lol

yea thats what ive heard and what im really trying to be cautious about. I think the guy said that he was using a shipping agent because he was buying a few things, dont know what though

usually the only time you hear about a shipping agent is when its overseas, and a scam. which both usually are. Anything over seas 90% of the time is a scam, and whenever i hear the word shipping agent, i stay away from it. when i was selling my Evo on ebay, they wanted to send me 2,000 extra and then me send back the difference to their shipping agent....i said sure send the money, but ur not getting my car!

dont be silly... cash only!

tell him to cash his own check and mail you a money order.

or a cashiers check, or cold hard cash. checks are sketchy

you need to watch it with cashers checks also. They can also be counterfeit. Ive seen quite a few problems with them. I mean its not all the time, but when it comes down to something like that, i would look into paypal. That is normally the safest way to go in your case.

heres the ways i like to be payed from least sketchy to most sketchy

-cash
-paypal
-cashiers check
-personal check

Tell him to send you a money order. If he has the cash in the bank for a check then he can send a money order.

The shipping agent makes it sound more authentic, because you figure you have to cash the check first, in order to pay the shipping agent.

Wrong!!!

A check can take up to 3 days or more to clear, at that point your quad is long gone!!!

Could be legit, but I wouldn't take that chance.

Tell him to open a paypal account and go that route.

To me the shipping agent makes it sound fishing. one of those two good to be true. I've sold a decent amount of stuff ebay, craigslist, local classifieds etc. If they offer asking prices and will provide shipping than its too good to be true aka b.s. Walk away and go sell your four wheeler. Otherwise you will waste alot of time and be back at point A when your done.

Have him western union you cash.

have him send a postal money order. you can get them at any post office. they are backed by the federal government and traceable (there not going to risk loosing any money). plus he has to pay them with cash. the post office wont accept checks for money orders. this is what i do cause i don't wanna send a bunch of cash through the mail.

I sell a lot on ebay and stuff like that and when I was more new too it, with the low feedback counts and stuff.
You will get more and more people calling out dying to pay you 252375823452398 dollars for a damn quad or ipod, whatever it may be to suck you in. Even "I sent the money so ship it to me now to this address!" And they will give you a fake receipt.
They may only ask for some info like name, number, and address. Or any combo. The sad thing is you have no idea how far you can get with that info.. Also I have always had people say there agents and pros and other BULLw00terttt to make it sound that much more authentic. I would cut him off. Give no info. It's not like he can't find a damn local quad...

Good luck.
Get some straight US dollar dollar bills y'all, Or tell him to take a hike.

hey i had the same thing happen to me and the check didnt clear. it may seem good that hes giving you asking price but i would wait until you get someone interested locally that can give you cash. hate to say it but you cant trust people now they try to scam you anyway they can.

I would ask him to go the PayPal route. If he refuses to go through PayPal, then he is most likely trying to scam you. If he is willing to go with PayPal, then I would assume good buyer.

im pretty new to paypal, when i buy something using paypal does it give them all my shipping info when the transaction goes through?

as lil wayne would say... money over b!tches

Yes when they receive your payment your address will be right along with it

sounds like one of those craigslist scams

i would either get a postal money order or cash thats how i always do stuff and ive never had a problem. if he refuses paypal dosnt mean hes not a good buyer he might not have a credit card or sumthin stupid like that but id go for cash

yea so he said he sent out the check(supposively its a bank check) and it should be here soon. im not gonna give him my blaster untill it clears. but im wondering if I cash that check and he puts a stop pay? not too sure what that is but ive heard of it. anyways if he puts one of those on there will the bank just charge my account or will I be in a bit of trouble haha?

Ummm....i wouldnt cash it. Even ifit clears it could take 3-4 months to find out its a bad check, and then when it is, guess who is responsible for the money? YOU! so the guy gets a free blaster, and you get stuck payin a couple thousand back to the bank, and he gets away scott free. Trust me. i wouldnt deal with it if i were you. But thats just my opinion, and im sure others will have the same. Not trying to burst ur bubble, or make the sale sound like its bad, who knows, it all could be legit. But the possibilites of that are very slim.

yea anyone know the difference between a regular check and a bank check? not too sure but last I thought they were backed by the bank kinda like a money order

teller checks and money orders are pretty easy to fake too, there are alot of scams comming out of nigeria that use these right now. this sounds EXACTLY like those scams, except not in nigeria...

cash is the way to go, if he can get a teller check or a money order, he can have the cash in hand, if its too far to meet and exchange the cash, then he doesnt want the quad that much... also gotta think.. would you send a check to a stranger to buy a bike you have never seen? no matter how special your blaster is... its not that damn special.

ok so this guy has already sent the check what should I do. what should i look for if it is fake??

take it too your bank, tell them the situation, tell them you are afraid it may be one of those scams, and ask them if there is anyone they can guarantee its legit.

But just like anything else, they are very easy to counterfeit


http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre40.shtm

ok thanks for all the help as soon as the check gets here ill take it too the bank and make sure it clears out and everything. hopefully he will just be a honest guy tryin to buy a quad

Honestly, whenever I post something on craigslist, I usually get about 5 emails from guys wanting to pay me either my asking price or more, and use the old bs line, "I'm sending a shipping agent to pick it up". Deal locally with cash. If the guy pays with a check, it can take up to 8 weeks for the bank to figure out it's bogus, and then you're the one stuck paying them back. You're probably really excited that someone wants your Blaster, but if you go through with it......you're going to get ripped off!

ok so I got the check and the bank teller told me it was a credit card check. I told the guy im sending the check back and if he really wants it he will send a bank check which is backed by the bank and just as good as cash.

did he send you a tub of AS$TRO GLIDE with the check, cuz he is tryin to fcuk you

you did the right thing, the guy is going to give you a bunch of chit and try to make you feel guilty for turning down a sale... dont feel bad, you are doing what you need to do to protect your ass, if he is a good buisness man, he will understand your concerns and try to make the deal go through...

look around on this site for possible ideas on how to deal with scammers in the future...

http://www.419eater.com/

+1, id watch ur back. dont drop any soap.
"all the rumors about dropping the soap in prison are true!"
"really"
"yeah! you cant hold on to that thing!"

I can almost guarantee he is out to rip you off man, he can look all he wants, tell him NO checks what so ever, only cash or money order and that you would have to have it validated and fully cleared before you let it go. People do NOT use checks too often anymore and if he has the money to write a check he can just as easily go get cash and if he argues about it then just ignore him cause he was trying to take you for a ride.

yea I already got the check and googled the name on it and boy was I glad I did the name and check were fake and this guy has already scammed a few people. I am going to take this to the eterney general because it was fraudulent mail which is a federal crime.

That would be attorney General.. dont tell him you know hes screwing around, try to set him up and tell him the check was good and where you send the bike, then have police show up.

I wish it were that simple I already told him I was notifying the authorities and I wasnt supposed to be sending it out I was supposed to western union transfer money from the check to the shipping agent. its all over now im sending the check and everything else I need to. lesson learned and now im glad we have google lol

google is awesome. tell us what happens, this is exciting now =)

ok ill keep you guys informed. most likely he will be going to federal jail for a decent time because I wasn't the first one to get scammed either!! what has our country come too??!!

most likely he wont get caught and will keep on doing it. We had a guy on the S2000 forum screw a bunch of people over. People had his real name, address, and tons of evidence and stuff but the police wouldn't do anything about it.

Wow, it's good to finally hear one of these stories where the good party in the transaction didn't get screwed. I hate hearing about these people getting away with scamming all the time. Keep us posted.

where did they take all the evidence too? the local police or somewhere else? im hoping that by sending this check to the feds they will be able to find this guy/guys.

What was his name, if you dont mind me asking?