I have just encountered an experience as a result of my ad in your system that you might want to bring to the attention of your customers.  I hope most folks won't fall for their scheme, and to put them on notice will be effortless but hopefully worthwhile.  The e-mail I received was for the purchase of the 5th wheel trailer I have advertised. 

Their scheme is to send you a check for more than the asking price and you are to follow up by making arrangements for the pickup of the unit and to send them your check for the difference between the asking price and the amount of their check.  In my case the difference was $6500.00. 

I just played their silly game and deposited the money only to be plagued for the next three weeks to send them the $6500.  I wasn't about to send them anything until I knew for sure that this was not some sort of a scam. 

The point I want to make is that it can take weeks before the worthless check they issued is returned to your bank.  Their schedule is to issue the check early in the month so it is not presented to the issuing checks owner until the bank statement and the checks for the month are received the following month.  That gives them up to 30 days.  Then the owner has another 45 days to identify the fact that someone is issuing checks on his account illegally and report it to his bank for correction.  That means that it could be up to a minimum of 75 days before you are notified that the check you deposited was issued illegally. 

I had my banker call the owner of the issued check (An Electronic Company out of New York) and his response was that he knew someone has been issuing checks on his account.  The strange thing is that he had done nothing to close the account so additional checks would be returned NSF upon receipt by his bank.  It was my thought that he may also be involved in this scam so we reported it to the FDIC who just happened to be at my bank when this was going on. 

I only hope that somehow this will be investigated and the scam artists caught but only time will tell.  

Sincerely,    Les