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Yes, it sounds scammy. I have an etsy shop where I make things for $1,000+. I take a 50% deposit and ship 4 weeks later. I had a customer ask to pay by cashiers check. I said that's ok, if it from the post office, since I research and it's less often fake that way. He placed an order and I got a $620 western union cashiers check in the mail. I went to the bank and asked what could go wrong. They said it could take a week or two to find out if its fake and if it is it would be up to $40 fee for the bad check. I deposited it anyway. But I won't start the work yet.
I'm thinking of what to do. A $40 fee I can take. But I will wait 2 weeks before starting, since materials will cost $350. And I want to put off the mail by date by that long, plus another 2 weeks for the balance check. This job will cost me $350 materials, and about $120 marketing and the rest is my labor for 8 hours. What should I do? Why must they pay by cashiers check? I can see that they may not have a credit card, but why not a debit card? I don't need the work that bad. But I don't want to turn down a customer for having weird finances.
Cashier check sometime is easy to forge, so chance is that you might receive a fake cashier check. Not to mention the $40 fee that you may get charge, but the bank account you deposit it into, might end up close by the bank simply due to the fake check that you deposited. Even when you have no intention and no way of knowing of depositing the bad check, bank doesn't care. You may be better off with credit card or debit card.
Cashier check sometime is easy to forge, so chance is that you might receive a fake cashier check. Not to mention the $40 fee that you may get charge, but the bank account you deposit it into, might end up close by the bank simply due to the fake check that you deposited. Even when you have no intention and no way of knowing of depositing the bad check, bank doesn't care. You may be better off with credit card or debit card.
Yes, of course, I'd prefer any other payment. I will wait 4 weeks to mail out goods anyway so any fraud for the deposit should be revealed. At that point I would order materials and use my time. But not mail anything. Then maybe the check is real and they send a fake ballance check. So should I say I will mail the item 2 weeks after the balance check arrives? Why does anyone need to send a western union money order anyway?
its 99.99 pct a scam.
why would they need to pay by cashier's check?
they sent it from the post office- they could have easily bought a postal money order and you could have cashed it at the post office. if it was fake they would tell you.
Refusing to accept a cashier's check (or a Western Union m.o. that is most likely not real) is not weird financing. They are now used in scams so frequently that I'm surprised anyone still accepts them. There are several other payment systems you could use, such as PayPal. I know people who use Square to process credit card payments and a couple who have cheap card processing through Costco. You might even try ApplePay, GooglePay or AmazonPay.
If you want to accept m.o.s, then I would limit them to USPS. If someone wants to use Western Union, then tell them to wire the funds to your local office and they will pay the fees.
I had to guide my brother through avoiding this type of scam about eight years ago. My bet is that you have never spoken to the customer, but only had mail or email correspondence.
Find the initial email that was sent to you, copy out a phrase from it, bring up google search and put the phrase IN QUOTES in the search box. You may find others who have been scammed. Proceed accordingly.
Be aware that the first things scammers want is to gain trust. The scam itself can be a later larger transaction. Artists are prime targets because so many have their ego and self-worth tied up in their work, and flattery works wonders.
I've gotten out of selling things in recent years, but the condensed version of what I learned:
Western Union is always a scam. Always.
"Bank checks" can be one of 2 things, a "Certified" check (funds are taken by the bank from the persons account to cover the check) and "Cashier" check (simply a check made by a teller, but no real difference from a personal check ` they can bounce). BOTH can be stopped by the person who requested them leaving you high and dry, and that's ignoring the fake options.
USPS Money Orders ~ these were the only option I still allowed at the end. You can walk them into ANY post office and cash them (might take a day if you have a lot of $$ worth, so they can get it on site). I know that from a buyers end, failure to deliver is considered Mail Fraud and the USPS can address that in legal ways ~ not sure about the other way. But you know, right away and without potential fees that the payment is good or not.
Paypal, while annoying and has issues (like, never leave money on PP, nor in the account linked to PP), is reliable enough for EFT. Several other banks now offer person to person EFT's for no cost, the catch is both have to be bank members. Else it's whatever the EFT fee is.... and I've bought/sold bigger items with EFT. Usually cars, where we meet at one of our banks and do the transaction there.
And finally cash. It's always King. Supposed ot be bad news to send it through the mail, but who hasn't gotten a gift card from grandparents with some cash inside?
Good luck, but I think you just cost yourself $40.
I agree with the rest, most likely a scam. Sometimes you can google the person's email address or name with "scam" and find a wealth of information about how they have ripped off other small businesses.
Where are you shipping to? Did you google it? Not sure what you sell, but do you ever think about why a person who doesn't have a credit or debit card would spend $1000 on your items?
This a common scam perpetrated on people who list items for sale on EBay.
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