Tis' The Season To Be Scammers.... BEWARE!

I'm not sure whether to tag this under funny or what because someone tried to pull one on the Ol' Bandito and got called out for it. I did want to post this also just in case some of you have never heard of this type of scam before, it might just save you thousands of dollars and a big headache!
This all began with me posting a private listing on the internet. I make and sell steel targets and thought that I would try listing my product on a "Craigslist Type" of site and see what happened. It didn't take long before I received a message from someone interested. Well, with the type of luck I have with these types of sites and online transactions, I try to never get my hopes up because they always seem to fall through.

This person seemed very sincere and determined to acquire one of my targets which made me happy. I don't charge much at all for these things and if I actually broke down everything cost wise, I would probably be going in the hole or maybe be breaking even but I enjoy building them so...

I will post pictures of the actual text messages at the bottom. I'm not blocking out the senders phone number for any other reason but to warn other possible victims of a potential crime or scam. I do not encourage any type of harassment or bullying.

This is basically how the story goes... The subject told me that he was working out of town on a mining field and wouldn't be able to come himself to physically come and pick up the item (Red flag #1). My bullshit radar is already going off, but I'm still going along with it because it is possible that he's telling the truth. Plus, I might be able to have some fun with this if it is a scam...

This is one of the descriptors that I put in my listing. Remember this because it goes along with the last message I sent him.

These shooting targets were built by myself, a veteran police officer with many years of firearms training as well as being a specialized firearms instructor also. So rest assured that these targets have been built by a professional marksman and not someone playing with a welder!

Okay, so my question to him is, how is he planning on paying me? His reply was that he was going to mail me a cashiers check for payment if I accepted it. I told him that as long as the check cleared everyone's bank, then I was fine with it but I would need to wait for clearance before the target was delivered. Everything was flowing along but my antenna's were still at full attention, especially when he started talking about deducting money from the check!

He told me to keep an extra hundred for myself for the extra effort that I have put in to this transaction and for holding a target for him. And he also mentioned taking money from the check to pay a third party, supposedly the person picking up the target. (Huge Red Flag!)

Basically he was wanting me to take his check that was made out for a lot more than it was suppose to be, deposit it in to my bank account, withdraw a certain amount to either wire or send someone else.

I know this can sound confusing but here's how the scam works... I would have taken the check and deposited it in to my bank account. My bank would start their clearing process but it takes days to complete that so they give you partial funds or a partial amount of the check. The bad guy wants you to then wire the money back to him as fast as possible. After your bank finds out that the check was no good, YOU are responsible for repaying the bank back for monies lost and the bad guy has just got paid!

He sent me two checks. One was Next Day Air and the other was Priority. Notice that both checks have the same check number...WHAAAA_WHAAAA! Another RED FLAG!

Fortunately for me, I was familiar with this type of scam and have seen it happen too many times to so many people that didn't know any better. Below are some of the actual texts that we exchanged. I was bummed when he stopped communicating with me... :)

This is getting fun for me because I know he's sweating bullets now. I even called him but he won't answer.

And here comes my last and final comment to this dirt bag. Maybe he will read the description more carefully next time or hopefully just take my advise and get a job!

Stay safe guys!