Buyer scam alert

Just a heads up. I recently had a reply by text regarding a press I listed for sale on Briar Press from someone claiming to be hard of hearing. The first red flag was his choice of words, “I am texting you instead to call because I am hard of hearing at the moment.” Alright I thought, that’s a strange choice of words but not everyone’s first language is English, so when he made an offer on the press we haggled and agreed on the price. Then he said he had arranged with a shipping agent to pick up the press and would send me a cashiers check. I asked who the shipping company was and he replied it was a “private courier”. His choice of words continued to be odd and I began to feel suspicious, so I did some internet searches and apparently there is a common scam that begins with a supposedly deaf buyer who then sends a bogus check for more than the agreed upon amount and asks for the seller to return the difference. A bad check may clear your bank but take weeks for the issuing bank to declare it bogus and the seller is then on the hook for the amount to their bank. If the item was picked up the seller is out both the item and the cash. I’m anxious to sell the press but I decided it wasn’t worth the risk so I told him the deal was off and blocked his number from future texts.

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