If you are offered a cheque for your goods in excess of what you are asking, and the buyer wants you to send the difference in cash back to them, be aware that this is a cheque scam and will result in you being conned out of both your goods, and the money sent to you.

If you are offered such a deal, ignore it.

How does that work? We are trying to sell Nick's electric chair for $3000, and a guy emailed me and said he would send a certified check for $6000. and have a shipper pick up the chair. We were supposed to give the excess money to the shipper. I thought it sounded too good to be true.

Typically, an overpayment cheque scam works like this:

* A seller places an Internet advertisement for a car or other item with a high price tag.

* Later, the seller receives a generous offer for the item, usually via an email.

* The seller agrees on the price, and, often, also agrees to the proviso that he or she refuses any other offers for the item.

* The scammers then send a cheque for the item. However, the cheque is for substantially more than the specified amount.

* The scammers invent some excuse for this overpayment and ask that the balance be electronically transferred to a specified bank account. For example, they may claim that the extra funds are to pay the fees of an agent who is handling the sale or to cover shipping costs.

* The seller dutifully transfers the amount out of his or her own funds.

* Later, the seller finds that his or her bank has dishonoured the cheque. In some cases, the bank may actually have cleared the funds, but discovers later that the check is a forgery or was stolen.

* Thus the seller has been bilked out of a substantial amount, with little chance of recovering the money.

Furthermore, the item remains unsold and the seller may have rejected legitimate offers in the mean time.

The supposed buyers usually originate out of West African nations such as Nigeria. In fact, it is probable that the same gang of con-artists that run Nigerian loan scams and international lottery scams are responsible for the overpayment cheque scam as well. Like the Nigerian scam, the intent is to draw the potential victim deeper into the scam via a series of emails.

To protect yourself against this sort of scam, never agree to a deal in which the payer wishes to issue an amount for more than the agreed price and expects you to reimburse the balance. The scammers use a variety of excuses to explain the overpayment, but any such excuse should be treated with the utmost suspicion.

We had this issue 2 years ago, a 'client' emailed wanting to book 2 weeks, seemed genuine enough at start. However, deposit never came, then a cheque arrived in the post looking like it was from Direct Line insurance (in uk) for nearly twice the amount, with no identification of who it was from. After 12 phone calls to different depts of Direct Line and Royal bank of scotland, the fraudulent cheque dept confimed it wasn't genuine!

Greetings All
I have just had one,
the emails are like a spy novel

I just had one today simon!! i put something for saleon friday free ads and had a ridiculous cheque offer for £1000 the item is only worth £30! he talked about shipping agents etc what a fiddling

Greetings All
Is happened to me last week,
I have a wheelchair for sale and buyer emailed me and said somebody was sending me a cheque for £4,000 from The Royal Bank of Scotland and I was to take the cheque to my bank and take out £3,400 in cash and go to a western union agent in Aylesbury
and then send the £3,400 to an address in south east London and some body would collect the wheelchair,
I spoke to the person and his english was not very good and he said do as the email,
I told him I was tearing the cheque and he said he had told make sure I would tear it up but it is still in my draw and I never heard from him a gain.
so be warned of a Jacob Tunde,
IN GOD I TRUST AND THE REST PAY BY CASH.

cheers dingle, my one was bill gann

You know, was in the hospital just after my injury and I started getting multiple emails from arseholes like that... I found great fun in writing them back just to screw with them, finding fun and creative ways to mess with them! LOL, it was quite entertaining!

hi Dingle,
these days i aint even sure about the God guy either.
Ray

Yep that's the way to go, I lead them along with lots of return emails, build up a rapport and their trust and then when you have them hooked tell them to **** off