Ontario City visited by fake online buyers
Photo by: Debaird
City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service in Ontario is warning those selling items online to be wary of online buying fraud. Fraudsters are trying to have the sellers send them money using a clever ploy. They contact online sellers and evince an interest on buying items from them. After some time spent discussing the deal, they finalize the transaction.
Soon after, the seller gets a money order from the buyer as payment for the purchase. The money order, however, is made out for an amount much more than the price of the item.
The phony buyers explain this as an oversight on behalf of their orderlies. They request the seller to cash in the order, keep payment for the item, and to wire the rest back to them.
Weeks after sending the money across, the sellers are revealed to the fact that the money orders they submitted were counterfeit. Victims of the scam lose the items and the money they sent across to the fraudsters. To make matters worse, they also get entangled in legal trouble with local authorities as it is a criminal offense to deliberately try to cash a fake money order.
The fraudsters are asking for the balance to be sent to an address outside Canada. For this reason, investigators assume the fraudsters to be based abroad.
The law enforcement authorities are urging online sellers to be suspicious as soon as buyers, on whatever ruse, make a payment for something more than the cost of the item and ask them to send the balance across.
Source: ThePost.ca
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September 5th, 2008 at 1:14 am
This is not a shocking revelation; scam is a very common issue recently. Many people have been victim by such illegal action. Most fraudsters are performing this fraudulent act through online very similar to the discussion above. Scam spreads all over and number of fraudsters is growing. This article is just one of the examples, these illegal doers are taking advantage of asking money from hopeless people and soon to be their victim. People must always be aware about this issue.