zigrig

Got one from the same person(s) as well. The way the scam works, is that many people are under the impression that "Cashier Checks" are safe instruments for banking transactions. In general that is true, but the loophole is that banks honor the check on deposit, yet still have to receive the funds from the issuing bank. If the check is fraudulent and your bank cannot recover the funds, guess who will end up paying if you already have used those funds? Part of the scam is that you are supposed to send/give some money to the "freight" company to cover the shipping costs. So you get a "cashiers check", deposit it with funds being available almost right away, take out a portion to pay for "freight", and in a couple of weeks your bank tells you that the check was fake. In reality you used your "own" money to cover the freight/shipping charges, which obviously will just end up in the scammers' pockets. There may be some situations where such transactions are OK, but you need quite a bit of recourse and time to wait for funds to clear. Additionally, one can ask the bank to check the routing number on the cashiers check. You always have to ask yourself how someone that wants to buy gear would put so much trust into the seller, when there are sellers that are capable of pulling off such a scam themselves. In communicating with a potential buyer/seller, there should also be a fair amount of skydiving related questions involved. Often one can use a loft on a DZ as an intermediary to check the equipment for fit and condition. Yep, stay on your toes...