people actually allow large ticket items to go without waiting for funds to clear? not too bright.
Right...it's hard enough to find a seller on Ebay who won't send a $6 item until the check clears...
They are actually talking about two different cons: 1. a fraudulent sale of an item that does not exist and 2. a Nigerian 419 check overpayment scam.
With the fraudulent item sale the scammer will try to convince the buyer to wire them a deposit or go through a fake escrow website (usually hosted in China). In either case the buyer is out of their money AND if they used the fake escrow site their identity is probably stolen.
The 419 check overpayment scammer will send a fake cashier check drawn on an international bank. US banks are required to credit the account within 7 days but it can take up 35 days for a foreign cashier check to either clear or bounce.
So what happens is the seller deposits the check into their account, the bank credits it, they forward the overpayment to the shipper or the buyer and they never hear from them again.
A few weeks later the check is returned, the bank will take the money out of the persons account and they are out of any money they forwarded to the con artists.
So the bottom line is never pay for big ticket items that you have not seen in person, never accept cashier checks drawn on overseas banks and if you're going to use an escrow service use www.escrow.com .
99% of the fraudulent item sellers are located in Romania and 99.99% of the 419 overpayment scammers are in Nigeria.
Remember, everyone (except the perpetrator) thought they were looking at real cashier's checks or money orders.
As I've heard it told -- this was happening on eBay a year or two ago -- the seller would take the paper to his bank, and the bank would say cashier's checks and money orders could be turned into cash without any delay; no need to wait for them to clear. The bank cashed the paper, and the seller had the cash in hand. So, why not release the car (and refund the overpayment)?
It was only after the bank would try to send them through the system that it would discover the instruments were bogus. The bank's recourse was to go back to the seller -- their customer -- and get their cash back (ALL of it). The seller was stuck with a worthless piece of paper, no car, and a lot less cash than he started with.
A skilled thief will use real account numbers to make the check clear until the real account holder notices the charge. If timed right this can take 30-60 days. By then the thief is long gone with your cash and the item.
This con is as old as checks and unfortunately still works.