I'm selling a PSP on craigslist and have encountered different scammers on the web through email from Nigeria. Although, this time it's from Wisconsin. Therefore, I'm not sure if it's a scam. Usually you can tell by the way they type but this one is not easy and I don't know if USPS online money order is reliable. Here's her email to me. BTW my response was asking her if she was interested in it. She also sent it at 7:04 AM Eastern: Hello, Thanks for your response,i am located in Kenosha WI. so it is not possible for me to pay with cash and i am sending to a cyberfriend of mine. i will have {USPS} issue out the money order.Please let me have your contact address so that i can proceed with the payment. I will be shipping with my FedEx account. If you don't know how USPS online Money Order works please get back to me for explanation.I will need you to keep me updated. Thanks
If intuition is ringing your alarm bells....forget it. Sell your stuff in a method that suits you and that makes you comfortable. I'd rather ask the postal service for advice.....at least it's first hand.
Well the thing is, I just want to sell the PSP I had for some cash which I would finally get. I just dont know if it will be counterfeit or not. Does anyone know a way to stop this if it happens to be a fake money order? Should I just tell her I want to wait for the payment, bring it to the place to cash it in to see if it's fake, and then ship it if it's not?
That is the sellers prerogative .. You are under no obligation to send the item until you have the cash in your hand. Onya is completely correct about one thing.. If your alarm bells are going off then it's probably not right somewhere. Don't ever deal with somebody you don't trust, and never send goods without having payment for them.
thanks, but is there really anything to lose since I would have the money order in hand to see if it's counterfeit THEN sending the item. Can I actually lose in this situation. If I can, can you guys tell me where I may be heading for trouble?
ne1? And does anyone have any ideas to find out if they're indeed scamming me. Like any trick questions? Should I just act normal when writing to her?
Ask for a bank-issued money order then send the item when your bank cashes it for you. Otherwise you're liable to get screwed. Also, forum rules ask that if yours is the last post in a thread you edit your last post instead of making several in a row
I'm sorry for the double topic but if I go to the bank asking them if the money order is counterfeit and it happens to be counterfeit do I have a right to not send the PSP? I mean is there any way THEY can get me in trouble for not sending the item? They say they have a pre-paid FedEx account so will this affect anything if the transaction doesn't go through because of the fake money order? Thanks for any replies. i will just cask it if it is real after asking the bank, but i hope for some replies just in case it happens to go the other way around. thanks
If they send a bogus money order you're under NO obligation to send them the product and they can't say a damn thing about it. I've been around the block a few times and if it was me I wouldn't let that PSP out of my hands till I had their money in the bank. If they're legit buyers they should be perfectly fine with that.
Well, new thing just happened. BTW thnx for the reply. She says that she sent me an order confirmation email but my plans are all ruined by this ATTENTION* part of the post office email. It says: The Money OrderSM will NOT be dispatched or get to your resident until the shipment has been verified. This measure is taken in order to protect both seller and buyer interests and to reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activities. ****PLEASE NOTE*** Due to the fact that United States Postal Service processes thousands of orders daily, United States Postal Service RECOMMENDS contacting the Customer Support Representative that has been assigned to this particular Order directly. This ensures speedy verification of shipment as well as prompt dispatch of Money OrderSM. Send shipment tracking details to : postage.account@post.com Once shipment has been verified, You will receive a " ORDER DISPATCHED" email from United States Postal Service informing you that the Money OrderSM has been dispatched. Included will be the TIME and DATE payment is to be delivered. There is no way that I'm going to trust this lady to send me a real money order reading this. I think i'm not going to follow through with the transaction unless i misunderstood the text which means I cant see the money order before sending the PSP. am i correct about this?
don't get a post office money order, then. tell her to go to her bank, or go to Walmart, or any other of a dozen places--they all provide money orders. she mails her money order to you, you cash it. with your money in your hands or in your account, you send her the PSP. if she won't agree to that, then sell it to *someone else*. *edit* honestly, this should not be this difficult. you're both making it harder than it has to be. your part is because you're inexperienced, her part is either due to stupidity or trying to rip you off.
Do what you will but look at how things are run on ebay - buyer pays the seller first then the seller ships the product. It's standard proceedure. As popular as PSP's are you'll probably be able to find another (decent) buyer in no time. Maybe its just me but this looks bogus, The post office is a government entity and should have a government domain like .gov not some .com address. If you ask me you're gonna get screwed.
Ok thanks guy but now i'm thinking exactly how i'm going to reply to her. does this sound right? I'm sorry miss but I'm not going to follow through with this transaction unless I have the money order in hand, checking if it's fake to cash it in, because for all i know, you may be sending me a counterfeit check. if you have noticed, most sales that require shipping ALWAYS involve the seller having the money order beforehand but this is not the case. Unless you agree to these terms, the deals off.
sounds good, though i'd just say the deal is off now (if i were in your shoes) and find another buyer.
