The Better Business Bureau has received a number of complaints over the past three years regarding online purchases filed by people in the Columbus area.
But nearly all such complaints were filed by buyers who did not receive their merchandise.
What appears to be a new scam in south central Indiana targets online sellers, rather than buyers. And while it was attempted on a Columbus couple shortly after the Memorial Day weekend, Thomas and Sharon Mick of Columbus didn’t fall for it.
Here’s how the BBB describes this particular type of scam:
You are selling an item through an online service. A buyer contacts you claiming to be interested in purchasing the item. They may offer you more money for the item if you accept a cashier’s check or money order rather than following the site’s usual checkout process. When the payment arrives, it is for more than the agreed upon purchase amount. The buyer claims to have made a mistake and asks you to return the difference by some untraceable method such as a wire transfer. The payment turns out to be a fake, and you’re out the money.
That is precisely what happened after Thomas Mick attempted to sell a tool box for $250 on a social media garage sale page in early June, he said.
After a prospective male buyer told Mick the buyer’s wife would be getting in touch with him, the Columbus man received an email stating that if he were willing to hold onto the tool box a little longer, he’d be given an additional $50 on top of the purchase price, he said.
Four days later, the couple received a small plastic envelope marked priority mail that was purportedly from Graham Packaging Co., Mick said.
Graham Packaging is a legitimate plastic bottle manufacturer in Atlanta, Georgia, according to online records.
Inside the plastic envelope was a check for $1,800 that appeared to be issued by Wheat Services Inc. — and nothing else, Mick said.
“At first, it didn’t even register to me that this check had anything to do with the (online) sale,” Mick said.
Like Graham Packaging, Wheat Services is a small, but real company specializing in produce retailing located in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania, online records show.
Within a day of receiving the check, Mick got another email that instructed him to deposit the check, take out his $300, and send the remaining $1,500 to another person never mentioned in previous correspondence through wire transfer services, he said.
“At first, I really wanted to cash that check, but it just seemed too suspicious,” Mick said. “The next contact I had with (the “buyer”) was that the deal was off.”
If he had given in to his initial impulse, Mick would have eventually learned that the check was drawn from an account that had to be closed after the Pennsylvania firm discovered they had been hacked, Wheat Services Inc. administrator Eileen Pfaff said.
Pfaff said she had received many calls regarding purchases made on online sale sites.
Upon reporting the matter, the Columbus Police Department encouraged Mick to warn others.
Even if someone is able to cash a check or see funds recorded in their account, the check may still be a fake, the BBB warns.
“Your bank may even tell you a check has ‘cleared’, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are in the clear,” according to the bureau’s warning.
Despite modern technology, it can still take weeks to discover that a check has bounced, the BBB stated.
After telling her attorney son about their experience, Sharon Mick said she learned that if they had sent the $1,500 to the buyer as instructed, the con artists could have potentially drained their bank account.
“He said this (scam) is going on all the way across the country,” Sharon Mick said. “A lot of people need money, so a lot of people will be taken.”
Whether you are an buyer or seller, it should be considered a big red flag whenever someone tries to persuade you to go outside the online site’s usual process or payment methods, the BBB states.
It’s also a good idea to take advantage of protections available to buyers and sellers through many online purchasing websites, the bureau stated.
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The following are examples of online purchase scams in the Columbus area reported to the Better Business Bureau where money was lost.
- May 2018, Columbus: Items purchased in November,2017 have not been received. Money lost: $325.95.
- September 2017, Nashville: After a buyer pays for a toy, the order was cancelled by the seller, but the money was never refunded. Money lost: $65.99.
- November 2015, Columbus: Company processes payment for 18 purchased items, but only ships eight. Buyer informed other items are sold out, but no refund will be issued. Money lost: $160.60.
All scams reported to the Better Business Bureau can be examined by going online to the BBB Scam Tracker at bbb.org.
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