Is this reply promising a money order and cashier check a scam?
"It's a scam. The cashier's check will be forged. Craigslist has a warning about it here (item #3). What kind of payment do you think is not fakable? Or at least not   likely to be used in scams? When on craigslist - deal only locally and in person. You can ask to see the person's ID if you're being paid by check When being paid by check, how can seeing his/her ID help? In case the   check isn't cashable, I can find that person by keeping record of   his/her ID?  If you're paid by check, the payers details should be printed on the check. By checking the ID you can verify that the details match (name/address), so you can find the payer later. Of course the ID can be faked too, but there's so much you can do to protect yourself. You'll get better protection (including verified escrow service) by selling on eBay. Is being paid by cash the safest way currently,   although cash can be faked too, but it is the least common thing that   is faked currently? Do you recommend to first deposit the cash into a   bank (so that let the bank verify if the cash is faked), before   delivering the good?  For Craigslist, use cash and meet locally. That rules out most scams as a seller. What payment methods do you think are relatively safe currently?   Then getting checks must be the least favorite way of being paid. Do   you think cash is better than money order or cashier order?  You should only accept cash. If it is a large transaction, you can meet them at your bank, have them get cash, and you receive the cash from the bank. Back to the quoted scam, how will they later manipulate me? Are they interested in   my stuffs on moving sale, or in my money? They will probably ""accidentally"" overpay you and ask for a refund of some portion of the overpayment. In that case you will be out the entire amount that you send back to them and possibly some fees from your bank for cashing a bad check." I was a involved in this same scam from my Craigslist item.  The buyer texted me & said his assistant put the wrong check in my envelope & please let him know when I got it,cash the cashiers check, keep my part for money of my item & send him back the difference. Well, the check came to me for $1,350.00 for a $100 item.  I immediately suspected something here.  It was for way to big to be a mistake.  I called the credit union in California to ask about this cashier's check & sure enough, they said it was a fake check.  This scammer's phone he texted from was from a San Antonio,TX area code, the check was mailed from Madison, WI, & the check was on a California CU.  They sure cover their tracks pretty good.  So C/L'ers.....BEWARE! don't take checks for more than the amount & be asked to send back the difference. You will be HAD!
Also see who has the authority to delete bills or items on bills. This was a huge scam with some servers I've worked with. If you can delete an entire bill that was paid in cash then that's money in your pocket. "This is almost certainly a scam or a mistake.  This is not good, spendable money: it is not yours to keep. Very simple to handle.  Tell the bank, in writing that you were not expecting to receive this money and are a bit surprised to receive it. Preferably in a way that creates a paper trail.   And then stop talking.  Why?  Because you honestly don't know.   This puts you at arm's length to the money: disavowing it, but not refusing it. Wildest dreams: nobody wants it back ever.    As for the person bugging you for the cash, tell them nothing except work with their own bank.  Then ignore them completely.  He probably hacked someone else, diverted their money into your account, and he's conning you into transferring it to a third location: him.  Leaving you holding the bag when the reversals hit months later.  He doesnt want you reversing; that would return the money to the rightful owner!  He works this scam on dozens of people, and he wins if some cooperate. Now here's the hard part.  Wait.  This is not drama or gossip, you do not need to keep people updated.  You are not a bank fraud officer who deals with the latest scams everyday, you don't know what the heck you are doing in this area of practice.  (In fact, playing amateur sleuth will make you suspicious).  There is nothing for you to do.  That urge to ""do something"" is how scammers work on you. And these things take time.  Not everyone banks in real time on smartphone apps. Of course scammers target those who'd be slow to notice; this game is all about velocity.   Eventually (months), one of two things is likely to happen.   The transfer is found to be fraudulent and the bank reverses it, and they slap you with penalties and/or the cops come knockin'.  You refer them to the letter you sent, explaining your surprise at receiving it.  That letter is your ""get out of jail free"" card.   The other person works with their bank and claws back the money.  One day it just disappears.  (not that this is your problem, but they'd file a dispute with their bank, their bank talks to your bank, your bank finds your letter, oh, ok.)  If a year goes by and neither of these things happens, you're probably in the clear.  Don't get greedy and try to manipulate circumstances so you are more likely to keep the money.  Scammers prey on this too.  I think the above is your best shot." It is a scam, other people have given lots of details why.   But online access password Is ONLY of use to someone that wishes to steal your money.    Just including it in the requested information is enough to make it clear it is a scam. To deposit money into someone accounts only needs. And maybe (if the deposit is being pay by anyone that needs to report the payment to the government for income tax - at least in the UK) If the money is coming from a source that must report the payment for tax. The sting here is definitely in the tail, the PS that says We are starting to call you from the same day when we get your details. The initial email doesn't ask for details, it asks for commitment. Once committed, you will be more relaxed about providing details. This makes me think that this is more serious than a simple financial scam. This is an effort to steal your identity, and that could be much more serious than the one-off loss of a few thousand dollars. Here's why: 1. The scammer could get numerous credit cards and store cards in your name, run up thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges, and leave you stuck with explaining what happened. I know someone who went from being a multi-millionaire to a pauper in a few months when his identity was stolen - and he is no fool. 2. It will take you years to clear your name. Meanwhile, your credit is shot, and you might have trouble getting a job, renting an apartment, or simply getting a cellphone contract. 3. Once you've repaired your credit, the scammer can just go through his old files and do it all over again. 4. Cloaked in your identity, and therefore being seen as you, the scammer can pull any number of scams, for which you will eventually be blamed. Then as well as dealing with credit bureaus, you will be dealing with another, more serious bureau: the FBI. "Short answer: Yes this is a scam. I see three different possibilities how they get you. I will rank them from ""best"" to worst Scammer A sends 100$ to you. You then follow his instructions and send back 50$ through WU (this is untraceable). He then contacts his bank and tells them he never intended to send that 100$ to you, then bank will then reverse that transaction and give him back his money, leaving you 50$ short. Scammer A hacks or scams innocent person B and either sends B:s money to you or tricks person B to do it. When person B reports this to the police it will look like you were behind the whole thing. The transaction will be reversed leaving you 50$ short and with unwanted police attention (see this article for an extreme example: https://www.wired.com/2015/10/online-dating-made-woman-pawn-global-crime-plot/) The nice person A wants to send money to a criminal syndicate or terrorist organization but don't want to be associated with it. Leaving you 50$ up (hurray) and possibly on a bunch of terrorist watch lists (ouch!). The extra info you provide wouldn't be necessary for any of these scams but I guess it could be nice to have for some regular identity theft. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all that the scammers could do. It's just a short list to show you how dangerous it would be to play along. To state the obvious, don't walk from this person, RUN!" Its not a scam.  The car dealership does not care how you pay for the car, just that you pay.  If you come to them for a loan they will try and service you.  If you come with cash, they will sell you a car and not try to talk you into financing.  If you come with a check from another bank, they will happily accept it. I would try to work with Equifax or a local credit union to figure out what is going on.  Somehow she probably had her credit frozen. Here are some really good things to mitigate this situation: Oh and make sure you do #1 and forget about financing cars ever again.  I mean if you want to build wealth. This point stands. It's an accurate description.   However, for clarity, they're not skimming money off your order in the traditional sense. They see your order, beat you to the punch, and place their own. They then sell it back to you at a higher price. Think brute force for the stock market. "This is definitely a scam. My husband was inquiring with a ""company"" that was offering him to be. Representative for them. He got the same job details but the company was called Ceneo. I did due diligence and found that the real Ceneo has no problems receiving money directly from buyers around the world. The fake company mirrored their website, posted jobs on the net,hoping to ""employ"" unsuspecting people in the U.S. This is their reply to my husband when he asked the job details. DO NOT GET SCAMMED and held accountable for money laundering." Yes. It is a scam. The story makes no sense. They just want your info to steal your money. regarding requests to know how it works:  the scammer is requesting:  username, password, routing number, checking account number, and   security question/answers. they now have access to your bank account. they will have access until you are able to shut it down. Once they have your password, they can change it to whatever they want.  it can be used to launder money, steal money from other accounts you have, proof of identity... This is dangerous as it is a typical a scam.  Trudy convinces Bob to help her avoid an ATM free or some other pretense.  She writes Bob a check for $100, but is willing to take only $80 to return the favor.  Bob agrees. Bob deposits the check, gives Trudy the $80 and then later finds out the check is bad.   In most cases Bob will not be able to find or contact Trudy.   However, in some rare cases if Trudy feels Bob is very gullible, she will do the same thing again and again as long as Bob allows.  Sometimes the amounts will increase to surprisingly high levels. You can't cash the check silly.  How can you go off on a rant when you can't even tell the difference between a real check and a promotional tool.  If you don't want to call in an get info throw it away....simple.  This thread made me laugh.  Thanks for that.  Good day. This sounds like a scam. Did they email you out of the blue to offer you this 'job', by any chance, and you'd never heard of them before? That's an incredibly large red flag in and of itself. While I don't know quite what the scam is likely to be, here's how I would suggest it might work: Other variants are possible - say using a cheque rather than PayPal, or having Person A be the scammer as well. But this being a legitimate transaction is very unlikely. I'm not a finance professional by any means, but my understanding of cashier's checks is that they're more in favour of the person receiving. They're essentially guaranteeing that you have the money in your account to provide payment to the recipient.   The advice I've always received is to treat cashier's checks and money orders as straight up cash, because that's essentially what they are.  Hopefully someone else can come in with a better background, but I figured I'd pitch in. Ok so this is the best information I could get!  It is a guarantee from a financial institution that payment will be made for items or services once certain requirements are met.  Let me know if this helps!  I'll try to get more info in the meantime. "It is likely a scam.  In fact the whole mystery shopping ""job"" may be a scam.  There is a Snopes page about cashier's check scams, as well as a US government page which specifically mentions mystery shopping as a scam angle. As for how the scam works, from the occ.gov site I just linked: However, cashier’s checks lately have become an attractive vehicle for fraud when used for payments to consumers. Although, the amount of a cashier’s check quickly becomes ""available"" for withdrawal by the consumer after the consumer deposits the check, these funds do not belong to the consumer if the check proves to be fraudulent. It may take weeks to discover that a cashier’s check is fraudulent. In the meantime, the consumer may have irrevocably wired the funds to a scam artist or otherwise used the funds—only to find out later, when the fraud is detected—that the consumer owes the bank the full amount of the cashier’s check that had been deposited. It is somewhat unusual in that, from what you say, there has been no attempt thus far to get money back.  However, your sister-in-law may have received that info separately, or received it as part of her mystery shopping job but didn't mention it to you with regard to this check.  Typically the scam involves telling the recipient to transfer money to a third party (e.g., by buying goods as a mystery shopper, or via wire transfer to ""reimburse"" someone associated with a sham operation).  By the time the cashier's check is revealed as fraudulent, the victim has already transferred away his/her own real money. It's probably worth taking the check to your or her bank and asking them about it.  They may have more info.  Also, banks usually want to know about scams like this because, in the long run, they accumulate data on them and share that with law enforcement and can eventually catch some of the scammers. Edit: Just to help anyone who may be reading this later.  The letter you added confirms it is absolutely a scam.  My boss was once contacted via a scam operation very similar to this.  The huge red flag (in addition to others already mentioned) is that you are being ""given"" a check for over $2000, of which only $25 is purportedly for actual mystery shopping and $285 is payment for you, the mystery shopper.  The whole rest of the $2000+ amount is for you to wire to ""another Mystery/Secret Shopper in order for them to complete their assignment"".  They are giving you $2000 to give to someone else who is supposedly another one of their own employees/contractors.  Ask yourself what sane business would conduct their operations in this way.  If you work at a law office, or a hamburger stand, or a school, or anything you like, does your boss ever say ""Here is your paycheck for $5000.  I know you only earned $1000, but I'm just going to give you the whole $5000, and you're supposed to use $4000 of it to pay your coworker Joe his wages.""  No.  There is no reason to do that except that the ""other mystery shopper"" is actually the scammer."