St. Mary’s County, MD — The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office is warning consumers to be on the lookout for eBay scammers who have targeted several county residents recently.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, the most recent scam involved the scammer offering to overpay for a posted item for sale if the seller will accept a cashier’s or personal check. Then send the seller a fraudulent check. Sometimes these crooks will ask that some of the extra money be returned or sent on to a third party.
There’s another common scam involving the sale of vehicles. The buyer will offer to send a check to cover shipping costs and instruct the seller to send the money to the shipper. Then the scammer will decline to purchase the vehicle. The seller will return the money and then discovers the check was fraudulent.
Other similar scams involve fraudulent checks wherein the sender requests gift cards be purchased and the serial numbers forwarded to them. A safe waiting period for any deposited check to be fully verified is seven business days; more than seven business days maybe required for banks outside the United States.
Tips for selling items on eBay:
- Don’t send the item before you receive payment or before the transaction has gone through
- PayPal is an electronic option and produces digital logs of the transactions
- Keep all dealings as a seller on eBay where it can be monitored
- Refuse any requests to bypass eBay or cut auctions short for a “buy it now” price
Anyone who has been the victim of an eBay scam and wishes to make a report can contact the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office at (301) 475-8008.