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who use internet classified ads to sell merchandise or vehicles as well as landlords who advertise their rental properties online. Typically, an interested party outside the United States contacts the advertiser and agrees to make the purchase or rent the property. To make the payment, the "buyer" explains that someone owes him money and he will have that individual send a cashier's check in the amount owed to the seller. The amount of the cashier's check will be significantly more than the purchase and the seller is asked to deposit the check and wire the excess funds to the buyer or an associate of the buyer.

Most banks will release the funds on a cashier's check immediately or within a day or two. Many consumers believe this means the check is valid, but it can take up to several weeks for a bank to determine that a cashier's check is counterfeit. When that happens, the bank will hold the person who deposited the check responsible for the full amount of the check. A victim of this scam has lost the merchandise sold, the amount of money he wired to the "buyer," and probably bank fees for the returned check.

Employment/Business Opportunities

A common scam in this category is when bogus foreign-based companies recruit U.S. residents on employment-search websites for work-at-home employment opportunities. These positions often involve reselling or reshipping merchandise to destinations outside the U.S.

Prospective employees are required to provide personal information as well as copies of their identification, such as a driver's license, birth certificate, or Social Security card (which puts them at risk of being victims of identity theft). The employees that are "hired" by the bogus company are told that their salary will be paid by a U.S. company that is a creditor of their new employer because the employer does not have any banking set up in the U.S.

When the employee is paid, the amount of the check is significantly more than what is due. The employee is told to deposit the check and wire the excess payment to the employer's bank overseas. When the check is later found to be fraudulent, the victim is in the same situation as victims of counterfeit cashier's checks.

Escrow Services Fraud

Legitimate escrow services play an important role in protecting buyer and sellers in online transactions. However, scammers have been known to create phony escrow sites to which buyer victims send money and receive nothing in return or from which sellers wait for payment after

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