I had an item posted for sale in the RR Classifieds and got an email from a "Jerry Teague" (jerryteague359@gmail.com) expressing interest and that he would include some extra funds for shipping and insurance to NC. Well, that screamed scam right away but I went along. I then seemed to be ghosted for a week or so, but when I sent a followup he replied that he had Covid. He never replied to my request for shipping info.
Then I got a message about a USPS tracking number mailed from Wytopitlock ME, 180 miles from Portland in the middle of nowhere. The envelope arrived and enclosed a supposed cashiers check for almost 4 times the selling price of the scanner, with a return address from an insurance agency in South Portland ME. The check had no address for the bank it was drawn upon, only a generic "Citizen's Bank". The name listed on the check was "Earl Decker".
I suspect the insurance company named has no idea about their information being used for this fraud, their web page has the names of their people and neither Teague or Decker are listed.
Inside the envelope was a slip of paper saying to text this number upon receipt and deposit. The TX was from Area Code 850, which is north Florida.
I did a search on the phone number and it appears he (?) has run this scam several times before, there is a thread from last year at the QTH forums with the identical scam using different names and the same TX. See Update on a scammer - QTH.COM Swap Chat
I also found threads on Reddit about similar scams with that number, one had a photo of a check on the same type blank that I got.
While this is a common scam it serves as a reminder:
DO NOT EVER send a sold item until your bank confirms the check is valid and has cleared the issuing bank.
DO NOT EVER accept a check for more than the agreed upon price, the check is fake and the "buyer" will request that you send the difference, perhaps even "allowing" you to keep a portion of the overage for your troubles.
BE WARY of people contacting outside the venue of the ad (in my case he emailed me instead of sending a message thru the RadioReference forums).
BE WARY of "buyers" sending tracked envelopes for payment. They need to know when to contact you to arrange for the overage to be sent, usually by gift cards or cash.
Then I got a message about a USPS tracking number mailed from Wytopitlock ME, 180 miles from Portland in the middle of nowhere. The envelope arrived and enclosed a supposed cashiers check for almost 4 times the selling price of the scanner, with a return address from an insurance agency in South Portland ME. The check had no address for the bank it was drawn upon, only a generic "Citizen's Bank". The name listed on the check was "Earl Decker".
I suspect the insurance company named has no idea about their information being used for this fraud, their web page has the names of their people and neither Teague or Decker are listed.
Inside the envelope was a slip of paper saying to text this number upon receipt and deposit. The TX was from Area Code 850, which is north Florida.
I did a search on the phone number and it appears he (?) has run this scam several times before, there is a thread from last year at the QTH forums with the identical scam using different names and the same TX. See Update on a scammer - QTH.COM Swap Chat
I also found threads on Reddit about similar scams with that number, one had a photo of a check on the same type blank that I got.
While this is a common scam it serves as a reminder:
DO NOT EVER send a sold item until your bank confirms the check is valid and has cleared the issuing bank.
DO NOT EVER accept a check for more than the agreed upon price, the check is fake and the "buyer" will request that you send the difference, perhaps even "allowing" you to keep a portion of the overage for your troubles.
BE WARY of people contacting outside the venue of the ad (in my case he emailed me instead of sending a message thru the RadioReference forums).
BE WARY of "buyers" sending tracked envelopes for payment. They need to know when to contact you to arrange for the overage to be sent, usually by gift cards or cash.
