*#*#* SELLERS BEWARE *#*#*

[Excitmnt94]

i got this reply in my e-mail for the ad posted here, as well as a few other auto sites around the net. i am not sure where he did find my ad, but keep an eye out for something like this.



From : TOM MARCUS <tom_marcus212@plasa.com>
Subject : PAYMENT TERM !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello,

Thank to you for accepting the offer to sell the Continental ContiSportContact tires to me. I am particularly impressed by the prompt attention accorded the matter considering the need for us to conclude the deal in a timely manner and i have accepted to pay ($200) as you have requested. That sounds okay by me.

Concerning the shipment, my shipper will come and pick it up from your location as soon as we seal this transaction, I have a grant organization that has agreed to help me with some money which they have agreed to send the money to me and they promised me that they're going to issue a CERTIFIED or CASHIER'S CHECK to me, in which i will like to pay as a conditions of the payment with you in this transaction.

This means the cashier's check that will be sent to you will be in exact cost of your tires and I will instruct my grant organization to issue the check out in your name, the check will be in the amount of ($200) the exact cost of your Continental ContiSportContact tires and i will also compensate $50 for the offer. My SHIPPING AGENT COMPANY will take care for the arrangement of the pickup. If this is okay with you do get back to me with your full information where the check will be sent to;

FULL NAME:
HOME ADDRESS:
CITY/STATE:
COUNTRY:
POSTCODE:
TELEPHONE NUMBER:

Please do email me with the above information needed for me immediately for me to instruct my grant organization to issue the check out in your name. Hope to hear from your quick response reply soon.

Best regards,
Tom Marcus...
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[DigDug]

Yeah, these assholes are counterfeiting cashier's checks. The counterfeits are so good that the banks don't catch them until they are sent to the originating bank for settlement. The check is then found to be fraudulent, despite your bank already having deposited the funds in your account. These funds then suddenly disappear from your account, sometimes weeks later.

I believe the bank that accepts/honors the check should be held responsible for covering the loss, not the customer. If the bank cannot verify the validity of the cashier's check before depositing the funds in a customer's account, they should be forced to eat the amount of the check, rather than taking it back from the customer's account at some later date.

These counterfeits are another one of the Nigerian scams. Check this out:

http://www.state.ia.us/government/ag/la ... _scam.html

Be wary of inquiries like this one. Very poor grammar usually sets off an alarm in my head, but the key is that the potential buyer is intent on finalizing payment without concern for the details/condition of what they're buying. At least when you're selling racing-related equipment, you should expect the buyer to ask a few relevant questions before they start talking about paying your asking price.

And of course, avoid anyone who wants to pay you more than your asking price, and to transfer some amount of money to a third party on their behalf. This is ALWAYS a scam!

[vwbud]

as a bank employee, I have seen this type of scam first hand. I was responsible for depositing a fraudulent check and took a $6500 policy violation for it. I disagree with you about the bank having to take the hit for these types of scams. Many times the checks aren't counterfit. The ring that got me was using ACTUAL Bank Of America official checks.
However, for the sake of argument, I still would have taken the check for deposit regardless. Here's why:
I do not work for a bank of america, so I am not 100% familiar with the appearance of their official checks. We get Zero training on other bank's official checks. Each institution has its own fancy paper, and sparkly seal on the front. There really is no way to know unless the check is drawn on the same bank the teller works for, and even then, it is still hard to tell. My bank prints about 6 different styles of Official Checks. I know what they look like, but every once in a while I get a new one, and I proceed with caution.
I don't make the funds available right away to the customer. I make the check go through the same clearing process that a personal check would go through before the funds become available to you. I know an official check is supposed to be guaranteed funds, but they are supposed to be REAL too. Always consider the check to be worth less than the paper its printed on.
Many times when you deposit the official check (or money order...those are even worse!) they will make the funds available to you either right away or overnight as a courtesy. Don't be impatient. Put the check in and let it go through the clearing process (usually 3-5 business days) before using the money or sending any merchandise. That way if the money goes in, and then the check is found to be fraudulent, and they take the money out of your account, you aren't losing anything you didn't have before the deposit.
Most of the time when the tellers do these transactions, they have no idea what the story is behind your check. They see a check for $200 and say "he wants to put $200 in his account. " They don't know you got the check from some schmoe in Zimbabwe that is really from the Lower Bronx that printed the check off his laser printer at home, so he can steal the race tires you posted all over the internet from Tennessee. Don't be afraid to ask questions of your bank tellers about scams like this. That stuff we do get training on. If you have even the slightest feeling that something is not 100% tell them the circumstances. It just might save you (and them) some cash, and a LOT of headaches. Many times we can call the verification deartment (most larger banks have one) for large checks (like around 3-5K) to find out if they are real or not. We hate doing it cause after handling over 2500 checks a day, if everyone wanted us to do it... you get the idea.
The loss I took cost me a YEAR's worth of incentive bonuses (almost $1200) and the check was REAL, NOT COUNTERFIT. It just happened to be stolen and used less than 24 hours after it had been stolen. We got an e-mail at work the next day stating that Bank Of America "lost" some checks. But by that time, the guy who got the check had already cashed it, used part of the money, and has since had to remortgage his home in order to pay back some of the funds, plus he no longer has his '92 civic. The cops are still investigating.
Sorry for the length, but I think its things everyone needs to understand before you go back into the bank and scream at the teller. Good luck cashing checks!
buddy

[CABoegemann]

I'm sorry the bank withheld your incentive money Buddy. That's no more right than saying the consumer should be responsible for a check that a bank decided, at the window, was good. Any reason you're still working there?

The U.S. Treasury has been changing our "Legal Tender" for several years in an attempt to foil counterfeiters. Why can't the banking industry spend some of their wealth on an industry standard for spotting counterfeit checks? Seems to me that banks are second, only to insurance companies, for their lack of protection and service offered to it's customers. Why Greed

[DigDug]

I still firmly believe the bank should be held responsible for the cashier's checks it honors. I didn't say the teller should be held responsible - the financial institution should. It really sucks that the bank you work for screwed you on this "policy violation".

I always wait for cashier's checks to "validate", but I don't believe this process is always complete in 3-5 days. I give it 14 days. I also tell the teller to fully validate the check and not to give me funds until it clears.

I read about one guy whose bank contacted him a full month after honoring a cashier's check to tell him it was fraudulent. He took them to court and got his money back, and the bank had to eat the loss. Apparently, the counterfeit was so good, the "originating" bank couldn't even determine whether it was real, and it took a long time to investigate.

[DigDug]

Seems to me that banks are second, only to insurance companies, for their lack of protection and service offered to it's customers.

Agreed!

[vwbud]

I still work there cause I am waiting to hear back from a different prospective employer.

In defense of the bank, if they were to be the ones to eat the loss on these checks, I would just start depositing my own counterfit checks into my own account, say that I got them from somewhere else, and when they came back...not my problem, the bank has to eat the loss. I'm goin to go buy myself a new stereo courtesy of the bank.

I agree with you its wrong that they can wait that long ans still take the funds out of your account... but for them to have to eat the loss...I don't know about that either.
I guess its like racing...no matter how careful you are, something can still go wrong.

Best bet...sell only for cash on delivery!

[John Brown]

I may be spouting off here too early,and may not have read all the lines in the post, but I'm gonna ask just one thing........
Just what the hell is a bank responsable for??????????????????
they have a win/win situation every time.

I say stick it to the Banks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

never happen.

yea,get me started on this .....
jb

[Steven]

I've worked at a bank for several years, it is NOT the banks responsibilitly to determine the validity of a check. It is upto the consumer to be responsible for what they deposit into their accounts. So in other words, don't take a check/official check/money order etc from ANY that you don't know. If they can get you one of those, they can pay you in cash. If you HAVE to take one, don't deposit it into your main acct, deposit it into a seperate account and give it 11 business days, that is the longest it could take an out of state check to clear. Also just because the issuing bank is in the same state as you doesn't mean it is a local check, their clearing house/main office could be located somewhere else, your bank can tell if it is a local check or not by the routing number located on the bottom of the check.

Another scam to watch out for is someone calling you over the phone asking for your acct/routing number saying you won something, or some other lame excuse. You'd be surprised how many people do this!

[John Brown]

So...tell us


What is a Bank responsable for???? all the kind and gentle service they give...er I mean charge for.?

What other business can always pull from somebodys "money" to cover any mistake the Corporation or an individual employee makes??

Boy it would be nice to have that option.

And if it is admitted by the bank it was their fault,try to get them to pay for whatever consequential cost developed from the mistake.

And lets not even mention timing of deposits and avail. balances..........
funny how your deposit only counts at a certian time (even if its been there 2-3 days) but withdrawals happen 24 hrs a day.......

I love Banks......
"how many Mason jars are in your backyard?"

jb
PS. I know many folks who work at various banks...I dont know anyone who sets the rules......

[Steven]

Withdrawals ONLY happen once a day, and that is at night when everything runs through the clearing house. 97.8% of the time if you make a deposit before the cut off time of your bank (4pm where I work) it will post that same night BEFORE any debit comes out. Banks do make mistakes, I refund money back to customers DAILY for bank errors.

If you are not happy w/ your bank, I seriously suggest you look at differ banks, you shouldn't feel privileged to bank somewhere, the bank should feel priviliged to have YOUR account. There is no reason to pay a monthly service fee to have a checking acct UNLESS you get free items w/ your acct that would cost more than your monthly service charge.

[MARKP]

My bank pays me to have an account there.

Hey, almost 1% is better than no %.

[CABoegemann]

I'll try John.

WHAT ARE BANKS RESPONSIBLE FOR

I've never deposited anything into my account. It's always done by a bank teller. If they aren't there to varify what's coming and going, why the hell do we need tellers at all? I'll tell you why. Because a deposit box on the side on the bank can't give my daughter a sucker.

In Greeneville, the good ole boys have figured it out. NO BUSINESS IS BETTER THAN BANKING!!! Three brand new banks have opened here in Greeneville. Guess who? Two of the three own insurance agencys. In some ways these local banks are much worse than the insurance companys.

EXAMPLE: I was denied a loan to expand my business. I was told that everything looked good. Then all of a sudden I was denied. I thought it was because I didn't qualify for the amount requested. Turns out that I was denied because a competitor of mine also banked with the same bank. He found out that I was trying to expand and went to the President of the bank and told him that if I was granted the loan he would take his substantial business elsewhere. I'm sure that is NOT legal, but my source for this information is an employee that works at the bank...and she's not saying anything publicly in fear of losing her job over it.

I'm a little bitter

I think when I finish drinking what's in my mason jar I'll start a bank with John.

[John Brown]

Just take a quick look at all the banks going up all over the country..local and afar....then ask yourself if free checking is paying for that 10million dollar piggy bank....I think not.

and it dang sure not the low to no intrest loans. Type in bank scams into your computer and youll see NSF at the top. In peticular,how they manage to collect NSF's

my .02 anyway...
jb

[sean]

i had a bank NSF all of my money out of my account. i had more than enough money to cover everything coming in, but they sent them all back and by the time they were through with all the charges i had no money left in the account. speaking to the manager got me nowhere so i closed my account and moved on...until one month later when they reopened my account to charge me the monthly fee and, since there was no money in my non existent account, they once again charged me a fee which had to be paid before i could close my account for the second time. and believe it or not this happened again the next month, this time i had the teller who closed my account sign the slip showing the zero balance for the closed account and made sure to have every peice of paper i could showing the account had been closed. it didn't happen again.