Fake money orders..

Knuckles

I'm just curious how many of you eBay sellers have received fake money orders? I'm almost certain that this money order I recently received is bogus.. It looks pretty lame, I could make a more elaborate looking one. This is supposed to be from HSBC Bank.. I don't deal with them at all but I'm going to go to one of their branches today to show them the money order to make sure it's real before going to my bank to deposit it.

F%^* shady people, there would be no concern about this a few years ago.

kingraider75

I have cashed a lot of weird looking money orders. They have all gone through, or at least the money was deposited into my account. I think some of the smaller places issue cheap looking money orders. As long as you can cash it, I wouldn't worry about it.

Knuckles

If the bank is fooled though at the till and cashes it and a few weeks later it's caught as being fake they take the money back out of your account.. if there isn't enough in there they take legal action against you which is ridiculous. The buyer has 0 feedbacks.. The bank is a small one with only 2 or 3 locations here in Edmonton so maybe they do just make cheap looking ones but I'm still going to check it out first with them.

donnnster

some money orders have some sort of protection such as watermarks or lettering on the money order in different colors and they advise you to make sure those marks are present on the money order...but im guessin this might be a super cheap-o one that doesn't have that protection built in.

taka

IF HSBC is Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation then it is a very large bank.

EagleEyeKid

There's nothing wrong with being cautious.
Better safe than sorry.

milbroco

As a precaution, you can go into your bank and have them call the issueing bank to verify if the money order is good or not. The same thing goes for checks.

Knuckles

Well I went to one of two HSBC locations here and the woman at the till looked at me like I was a fool.. Hardly studied the money order at all and said it was fine.. I asked if she could verify it some how by serial number or something but she said that they're not able to do that.. Yeah right..

I then went to my bank to deposit it.. I expressed my concerns with it and a couple of people there looked at it very carefully and said that the security features are on it but don't blame me for being wary of it. They told me to wait 15 business days before shipping the item just to be safe and if I haven't noticed the funds missing due to the bank taking them back within those 15 days then all is fine.

I normally wouldn't be paranoid but for $1,000 US from someone with 0 feedbacks and a cheap looking money order... I am.

Mac53

Knuckles, I don't blame you a bit for being extra cautious. With the kind of counterfeiting skill there is out there, and with what is, I guess, a pretty lackadaisical attitude by the banks, this might be the next big scam.

baseballcardsonly

<< <i>some money orders have some sort of protection such as watermarks or lettering on the money order in different colors and they advise you to make sure those marks are present on the money order...but im guessin this might be a super cheap-o one that doesn't have that protection built in. >>




Correct!

US Postal money orders have a watermark w/ Ben Franklin (I think) and they also have the "thread" just like US Dollars

FWIW...

egallon

U S Postal Money orders are great...with your photo id you cash them asap at any post office...

kingraider75

I didn't know the money order was for a $1,000. For that amount, I would also wait for it to clear.