[Snarkhunter]

Originally Posted by niceguy

I've had this scam tried on me several times while selling motor cycles bits. It works on some glitch in the banking system to do with cheque clearance times. You will pay in the scammer's cheque and after a couple of days the bank will inform you the cheque has cleared and you will send off the guy his money. A couple of weeks later the bank will tell the cheque has gone bad and you will left holding the debt. Not sure of the details but I was told by a money guy this was how it pans out. As far as I know it's nothing to do with laundering just plain fraud.

If anyone has read "Catch me if you can" (there was a film also made based on the book) this was on of the scams that Frank Abagnale (the author of the book) - pay money (by cheque) into an account then drawing money against it, taking advantage of the time taken for cheque to clear he was long gone before the cheque bounced!