« Demographic Dystopia | Main | Warren Buffett as the Bankster »

March 05, 2010

Comments

brentashley

You're absolutely right. Scammers don't send you money, they send you a bogus cheque for much more than they owe you and have you send them the much larger difference back, in the hopes that you will do so before the funds clear (which is different from when the cheque clears, the detail they know and most people don't). It's a pretty standard scam. They get a bunch of money, you get left with a bank that takes the whole amount back from you.

So, I think it's a bit presumptuous to call the guy an idiot for assuming it was a scam. Odds are way in his favour that he was right about their intent. He's not clear as to whether he actually cashed the money and whether it turned out to be bogus but that would fit the pattern.

He does seem a bit of an arrogant turd, though, but crook, no.

Joe Strummer

Ok, who are you and what have you done with John Robb?

Not enough information in the craiglist posting to know exactly what was happening, but the "I'll send you a check and you send me back the excess amount" is a very old scam. Brentashley described the details, so no need to go into detail again.

John, how can you not see the potential for fraud in the "here's a check for $5,000 dollars, keep $1,500 as deposit for the room and send my travel agent MARTINE OKORE, $3,500". Did you not do a quick search on that name to see how many hits it had for the 419 scam?

Admittedly these were less common in 2005, but these days it happens all the time. Even selling a car on craigslist will get you an email asking you to ship the vehicle to some distant land, the only catch is some larger than necessary payment check that you are requested to forward the excess on to someone else.

Scott

Somehow, someway, I suspect that Justin never got $4950 from Ms. Love, and was just stringing the Nigerian scammer along for fun and...fun. Savvy people with a twisted sense of humor have been doing this for a pretty long time here on the interwebs.

Does Robb really believe that Justin really ripped off Sandra Love? Jesus, I hope not, because I tend to grant Robb a lot of credibility on networks.

Solarray.blogspot.com

I find Justin Credible to be just incredible.

Andrew Warner

..and who's the idiot here?

The comments to this entry are closed.