Should I be worried about giving my address out to stranger?
December 28, 2016 3:20 PM   Subscribe

I am trying to sell something on Craigslist and someone offered me a check in the mail (yeah I know) and more than asking price (again I know) but figured worse case scenario is check doesn't clear. So I go ahead and send them my address to see what happens. Now I'm paranoid about being robbed for changing my mind and calling them out? Am I being overly paranoid? I have a very uncommon last name so I'm sure with a bit of googling they could find my address anyway. Hell I googled myself out of curiosity and it was on the first page of results. Am I any more likely to be robbed than anyone else?
posted by mamamia88 to Computers & Internet (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Here's the Craigslist info that explains the scam.
I don't think they are trolling for address to rob; I think it is closer to check fraud or ID theft.
posted by calgirl at 3:29 PM on December 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


The check is being mailed by people well outside the United States. It will take a few weeks to bounce, not until after you think it's cleared and you've sent them back the excess money that they accidentally sent you.

Tell them that you've changed your mind and you are destroying the check.

They're not going to knock on your door.

But you are on the 'sucker' mailing list and will be getting a lot more scams coming to you via mail, email, and telephone for the next few years.
posted by Hatashran at 3:29 PM on December 28, 2016 [8 favorites]


Response by poster: Yeah I updated the post saying I'd take Bitcoin or PayPal but no checks. I'm a moron I know but nobody else was biting. Hell I inflated the price just to see if someone would offer less
posted by mamamia88 at 3:32 PM on December 28, 2016


Most people who have one kind of scam going aren't going to be interested in doing something completely different, especially if you aren't a threat. So, my advice wouldn't be
1. Don't cash the check if you don't intend to deliver the item. If you are wrong about them and it does go through then you are cheating them - bad karma even if they don't come to your house
2. Don't be insulting or aggressive if you back out of the deal. They start dozens of these in hopes that a few will pan out - unless you make it personal there is no reason for them to be upset, they will just go on to the next target.

For the future, there is no value to you in "seeing what will happen" since by the time the check bounced, the object is long since sold. Next time, save yourself time and worry and just ignore the offer.
posted by metahawk at 3:33 PM on December 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


If you want to back out of something that you've decided is a scam, you can most easily do so by saying that the bank refused the check.
posted by jgreco at 3:44 PM on December 28, 2016 [10 favorites]


Scam!

I never tell Craigslist people my address.
posted by LoveHam at 4:19 PM on December 28, 2016


FWIW your address is not a secret, unless you've gone through extraordinary means to protect it. You shouldn't worry about giving it out being a threat to your personal security. OTOH the "I'll send you a check" thing is a common scam on Craigslist, but you've been well warned about that already.
posted by Nelson at 4:41 PM on December 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I had someone do this to me, when it was clear that they were doing the "cashier's check" for more than the amount I took it down to my local Credit Union and handed it over to their fraud department and we all had a good laugh over it.

But, yeah, this isn't about your address, this is simple check fraud, trying to take advantage of the fact that your bank would likely "clear" the "cashier's check" fairly quickly, and then back and hook you with the full amount of the check (and fraud charges) after you'd sent the "excess" along to the alleged buyer's agent.
posted by straw at 5:18 PM on December 28, 2016


This is just check fraud.

This is being mailed from the United States. The people running it may not be here, but it will get to you fairly quickly, from a US address.

They don't care about your phone number or address or any of that.

You will not be on a "scam mailing list" or anything.

All that happens is that you get a fake check in the mail, then you start getting emails or texts along the lines of "hey, did you cash it yet? How about now? You should hurry." Eventually they'll give up, and that'll come quicker if you claim that the bank refused the check or you turned it over to the police.

I sell on Craigslist, and for a while I would always play along with these folks. I have stacks of fake checks, made out to every fake name you can think of: Sterling Archer, Cyril Figgis, Jenny Hucaniturntu, Ford Prefect, Hugh Jass, Uma Gahd, Arthur Dent, etc. Half of them are made out to my real name. I have not had any trouble related to these, and you won't either.

For the record, the only fake name that I couldn't get away with was Meowmeow Fuzzyface.
posted by Slinga at 6:59 PM on December 28, 2016 [15 favorites]


I just sold a number of things from Craigslist and a local paper. I was clear that the sales were "cash only." That worked out fine. I learned some things in the process. My elderly friend said that he put things up for sale if he didn't hear back within a day, he gave them away. Then I got a call on the last day of an ad, and this person wants to buy when I go back to ferry the rest of my things over to my new address. OK, cash only. Few people want to rob you over used goods. They want to do check fraud in almost every case. No is an easy word to use. No I won't take a check, no I won't do this, do that, it is cash only.
posted by Oyéah at 7:07 PM on December 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


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