[yaliceme]

Couldn't agree more. My mom almost got taken in by a classic Craigslist scam, which did a lot to make me appreciate how easy it can be for even smart people to fall prey (she's an IT professional, has an advanced degree, and is quite smart in general).

Basically, she'd listed some furniture for sale. A guy contacted her with praise for the item and said he was a purchaser for a regional furniture reseller -- he finds nice used furniture for them and gets a cut of what they pay to the original owner (e.g. my mom). The two of them agreed on a price (including his commission), then he mailed her a check from "his company" and asked her to wire him his cut. At the point I found out about this (it came up in passing completely by accident), she'd deposited the check and was planning to wire the money the next day.

I told her it was a classic scam and to please not wire the money. She didn't believe me; she'd successfully sold furniture on craigslist before, the guy's e-mails sounded legit, and the bank seemed to have accepted the check just fine. I told her it takes a few days for the check to fail. She still thought it was fine, but for my sake, agreed to at least wait a few days.

Sure enough, the check bounced. My mom described how masterfully the scammer worked upon her feelings in the meantime, asking where the money was, sounding hurt and angry that she was withholding his "cut" on purpose and trying to cheat him, saying he'd trusted her with the check because she seemed nice. Even with my dire warnings, she felt bad about waiting for the check to clear, but luckily she did.

[DanBC]

> I told her it takes a few days for the check to fail.

In the UK a cheque is never safe. The money could have been in your account for months, but if the bank discovers the cheque was forged they'll claw back the money.