Sadly one of my old bosses fell for the Western Union scam to the tune of $5,000+. Everyone else in the shop told him it seemed off. Once they told me what the name of the person was (after it was too late to stop it) I did a quick google and it popped up on scam warning sites.
They ordered a print run (which was a low quality, bad file) convinced him to send them money Western Union despite other people saying don't do it, and then on top of that he ordered paper for the run and had us print thousands of sheets of it before realizing he'd been scammed. And that's part of the story of how I ended up laid off (through no fault of my own) for around two years during the recession.
I know several people that have gotten taken by similar deals, although not nearly that much money though.
I almost succumbed to the scam years ago, but never went through with it, because in all my years of buying/selling/trading, I’ve never had someone not try to get me to lower a price much less offer me more than I’m asking!
I was selling a brake rotor/drum lathe on Craig’s List once. Had a scammer pull the “send me a check deal for more than the amount”. He actually sent me the check. It was made out from the University of Wisconsin. I called the bank that the check was supposedly on and asked if it was a legitimate account. They wouldn’t give details about whether the check was good, but did verify that the account existed. I almost deposited the check when I noticed that the check was printed out with the same style program that my work prints our payroll checks on. I know that if my employers used that program, it was cheap and easily obtainable for anyone else to do the same (that’s bad to think that way albeit true!).
Then it dawned on me. They could counterfeit a check from a larger business that probably does transaction of a few thousand dollars very frequently, and has plenty of funds available. The check could process, and clear the bank, Having the seller believe all is good. Then the seller fulfills the agreement by sending the extra back via Western Union. Then, weeks down the road the accounting department of the big company starts wondering...”what was this check written for?” They research and follow the paper trail leading back to the seller and the seller is on the hook by law to repay it all back.
It’s a pretty damn sorry scam to pull on people, so I enjoy going through great lengths to mess with their heads.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
