hawkmoon6360 - Posted - 01/20/2009:  04:53:48

Beware! I want to make sure no one else makes the same mistake I did. I thought I was being VERY careful when selling my guitar to some worthless slob in the UK. I demanded a bank check for payment. He asked that I take my charge out of the amount that he sent (which I did) and wire the remaining amount to his accountant via Western Union to handle shipping charges, fees, etc.

Even though I thought I was being careful, what I didn't realize was that the original check was worth less than the paper it was printed on and my bank doesn't catch fakes until a week or two later...after I had wired money to his "accountant."

Don't fall into the same trap I did. DO NOT use WESTERN UNION. Require paypal or some other form of payment where you are more protected from bottom-dwellers.

schlange - Posted - 01/20/2009:  10:43:31

That's why I posted this page a long time ago: flatpickerhangout.com/classifi...fraud.asp

Eric Schlange
Flatpicker Hangout Webmaster

Gottasmilealot - Posted - 01/26/2009:  16:58:49

The problem wasn't Western Union, the problem was that you fell for a scam that had you sending money to cover a worthless check. Western Union just sent money where you told them to send it. The scammer could have had you send it by any one of several different methods. A hard lesson for sure. People are trying that on Craigslist all the time. If someone asks you to send money in any form to cover their check, don't do it. Sorry to hear this happened to you.

Keith

hawkmoon6360 - Posted - 02/09/2009:  11:33:59

I agree, a hard lesson to learn. And very few of us read information about specific scams unless we've been hit. It's amazing to me where I see information about the Western Union scam now that I'm aware of it.

There IS in fact, a problem with using Western Union (I understand their purpose, and I don't claim that they are crooked or anything)...now that I'm aware of the scam, I'm even more (painfully) aware that Western Union transactions/$$ is uninsured. I thought I was being careful by requiring a bank check, waiting for it to go into my account (learned another lesson about the delay that exists between when a bank shows that the money has been put in your account to when it is ACTUALLY in your account). But in the end, I wasn't aware and/or careful enough.

So my conclusion...DON'T USE WESTERN UNION FOR ONLINE TRANSACTIONS. Stick with Paypal.

blueturfjim - Posted - 07/28/2010:  14:18:34

I believe that the same guy is trying to scam me, he told send the rest of his money to the UK after it cleared and never seems interested in my Collings guitar. I'm calling the cops!

brokepick - Posted - 08/15/2010:  14:10:01

Some guy tried to pull that on me from a Craigslist ad I had. These guys can be suckers too if you play them. Blinded by greed, I guess.

I asked him to FedEx the check to me... and he actually did it. I promptly fed it to the shredder. At least the #$%&@ is out the FedEx costs.

forksken - Posted - 08/15/2010:  18:10:38

had a fellow try this one on me too,I did'nt fall for it at all as soon as I read the email I realized it was not kosher and sent him one back telling him that copies of all corespondance was being fowarded to the attorney general of my state.(actually did it) also reported him as a spammer on website.