I posted an ad on Facebook.com Marketplace to sell a textbook for $70. The one response I got was from "Joe Smith" ([email protected]) who agreed to buy it. He never gave a shipping address, instead he was going to arrange for the "shippers" to pick up the book —very odd.
He then wrote several emails carefully describing how I was to cash the check he mailed, then take my share out of it plus $50 for the "inconvenience" and wire the remainder of the check to the fake shipping company called Mita Ganesh in Georgia ([email protected]). The check was for $1500!
I brought the check to the local police who determined it was in fact a fake check. The routing numbers on it where most likely real, so most banks are likely to cash it, then it comes back and the person who cashed it is responsible for repaying the amount. This is why the scam lackey requests that you wire the money as soon as it is cashed; so you don't have the cash anymore once the bank comes back for you to pay up.
The bogus check I received was marked as a certified check from Ameritrade Corporate Services, Omaha, NE. The check was mailed from Newark, NJ, with a return address on it in Sandy, OR. — this scam is all over the place, watch out.
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