Classified Ads Scam

What is a Classified Ads Scam:

The Internet and newspapers are a great source not only because of the great amount of information you can access, but also due to the advantages they offer. For instance, you can place an ad that announces your intention to sell an item, and the news goes around, so that a person who is interested in your ad can find you and buy the product. You need to be very careful because, despite the great potential and opportunities you can take advantage of this way, you can also become a victim of the so called classified ads scam.

What is a classified ads scam and how can it be recognized? Usually, after the announcement is placed, the vendor receives a call from someone (the scammer) who pretends to be very interested in buying the item for sale. The latter tries to prove his/ her good intentions by sending a check and even offering to cover for all the costs, including shipping costs. This is a necessary thing, since the “buyer” usually lives abroad but has a very lively interest in the item.

In order to avoid tipping the vendor off that he is about to become a victim of a classified ads scam, the scammer sends a check that is cleared by the former at the bank, only to inform him after a while that the whole transaction is off and he can’t buy the item anymore. Then the vendor must send back the money (he is supposed to recover it from the check he received) to the pretense buyer. This is how things are until the moment when the bank finds out that the entire process is a scam and that the vendor has been fooled into paying a lot of money without receiving any in exchange, because the check is a fraud.

You can start thinking that something is fishy and you might be caught in the middle of a classified ads scam when you receive an offer that seems a little too good to be true and especially when the buyer is from abroad and accepts covering the shipping costs.