Police warn residents after uptick in Craig's List scam

The scammers, acting as buyers, will contact the seller through the website and agree to send a check for an agreed upon price. The buyer will send the seller a check for more money than was agreed upon. The buyer tells the seller to wait several days for the check to clear and to wire the extra money back to the buyer.

The catch is, the funds for the check actually do not exist, said Detective Sgt. John Calamari said.

"What the seller never realizes is that even though the bank clears the check in two to three days, the funds for that check don't clear for seven to 10 days," Calamari said. "They Western Union this difference, then all of a sudden the bank contacts them a couple days later and says, 'the funds didn't clear for that check.' You're on the hook for the amount of that check [that was sent back to the buyer]."

The timeframe between the bank clearing the check and the funds clearing - or in these cases, not clearing - is what the scammers "are preying on," Calamari said.

Recent victims included township residents trying to sell a drum set, cosmetics and a car.

The car was being sold for $2,000 on Craig's List. A prospective buyer overseas told the seller he would send a $4,000 check; $2,000 for the seller and $2,000 for a shipper he would ask the seller to wire the money to.

"The shipper turned out to be bogus," Calamari said. However, more often than not, the buyer makes up an excuse as to why more money than the agreed upon sale price was sent; such as they "accidently" sent more.

The buyer will ask the seller for the Western Union transaction number after the victim agrees to send the "extra money" back. Even though the identities of the buyers are often fictitious, the scammer uses that transaction number to pick up the money at a Western Union branch.

Calamari said the department has not had any success prosecuting any of the cases that have come in.

"The nature of the scam is so good that the paper trail vanishes with Western Union as soon as the money is picked up," Calamari said.

The department has been made aware of the scam for the past year, but residents have been reporting the scam more frequently. Calamari said last year three or four residents had reported the scam, as opposed to six already in 2011.

Some residents have picked up on the scam before it was too late, Calamari said, while some have been hit for thousands of dollars.

The same scam was reported recently in Park Ridge, where a resident attempted to sell a set of tires on Craig's List for $900. The "buyer," from California, sent a check for $3,500 and instructed the resident to wire the remaining money back to them through Western Union. The resident contacted Park Ridge Police before the money was sent and was advised of the scam.

Receiving more money than asked for should raise a red-flag for a seller, Calamari said, and the police department should be contacted.

"If it's legitimate there should be no reason for them to send more than the agreed upon price," Calamari said.