Often, with the cheque, the way it works is that they'll tell you they have a "paycheck" or similar, from a 3rd party, for several thousand more than you are asking - i.e. you are asking $5,000, they have a Western Union (or cashier's cheque) for $7500. They say that they have someone who will pick up the bike (car, boat, trailer, whatever), in a week or two, but send you the cheque. And for your trouble, you can keep an extra thousand of it, for yourself, just send them $1500 in change. So, that one in a 100 puts the $7500 in their bank account, send off $1500, figure they just made a quick extra grand, and when the cheque bounces, you are liable for the $1500. So, now if you DO manage to sell your bike, you will only get to keep $3500 of the $5,000 selling price.
Another BIG scam right now, is "escrow services"...you see a $7000 bike, for $2800. You answer it, he tells you that the bike is in Florida, he's in Arizona, the bike is sitting a a shipper, ready to ship. The "other" guy paid the shipper already, but couldn't get a loan, so the shipping is already covered. And, since he's in Arizona, having just taken a "new job", he has to unload the bike quick. He wants to use (insert name here) Escrow Services - you send the money to the service, they release the bike for delivery, you have 3 days to decide if it is as described, and if it is, they release the money to the Arizona guy. If you DON'T want the bike, they'll pick it up, no harm, no foul. Of course, the Escrow Service is a PO Box, that they close down every few weeks, after fooling 10 or 20 people, and move it to a new location. Imagine fooling 100 people - that's $280,000 in just a few short weeks! And, it all looks VERY legit! I followed the path, and it just sounded too good to be true - and of course, it is...
Here's one of the ads from the Hawaii CraigsList - check your's, bet there's one there, too!!! This won't be up long, because CraigsList is chasing them down...
$2800 ValkyrieYou'll notice that the entire ad is a photo, all the lettering, etc, so you can't cut n paste the email. That's so they can put it up very quickly in all the classifieds. Don't even have to type! just insert the photo...
You can email that address, and you'll get back exactly what I told you you would...or, you can do a google on the VIN, in the photo, and you'll get back some info on the scam.
Be careful out there!
RC
