Foreign Cheque Scam

How to Recognize This Scam

1. Buyer is often located abroad
2. Buyer wants to pay by cheque, which is issued in a foreign bank

How Does it Work?

1. A buyer contacts you wanting to buy your item. They are often located abroad, but will send a 'certified' cheque as payment, saying that they will arrange transport of the item at their own expense.
2. The cheque is set out for more money than you have asked for, but they ask you to cash the cheque and send back the balance.
3. You cash the cheque with your bank, and after a few days the money seems to be in your account.
4. You send the balance (often a few thousand Euro) back to the buyer.
5. The bank later discovers that the cheques was forged, stolen, or invalid in some other way. The bank then withdraws the full sum from your account.

Note that he scammer is not actually looking to buy your goods but is only after your money.

What does DoneDeal.ie do to Stop This Scam?

The buyer often tries to contact the seller through the email service on DoneDeal.ie. Therefore we have a spam filter, which stops over 90% of all scam emails sent through our site.

Example

You publish an item for sale, and someone contacts you saying that they are interested in your goods and would like more information. When you have replied to their request they confirm that they want to buy your item.

For some strange reason they must send over a cheque for more money than you are asking for, and they ask you to be nice and wire back the extra money to them. They also claim that the item must be shipped somewhere (normally abroad), but they have a local transport company that will handle all that.

Below is an example of what the initial email may look like:

From: ROLAND <samsonus2002@yahoo.com>

My name is Roland i came accross your advert that you have mercedes 407 minibus forsale and my client is interested in purchasing it kindly mail me the price and the present condition and we will be making the payment with a certified cheque we await your reply asap

And the scammer's reply after the first contact:

Subject: MAIL ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
From: ROLAND <samsonus2002@yahoo.com>

Hi

Thanks for your the name and the address
This is to inform you that the cheque has been issued and send to your address in the amount of 1,000 poundsterling so as soon as the cheque get clears you deduct your money for the car and you send the remaining balance to our shipping company via western union money transfer for them to goahead with the neccessary shipping arrangent pls mail me AS Soon as possible regards to the arrangements also confirm to me as soon as you receive the cheque sent to you. we await your immediate reply.

Roland.