He’s back! Good ole ‘Gary Taylor’; trying to pull a money scam on people. Shame, ‘Gary,’ SHAME!
2 Wants to Know told you about ‘Gary’ sending a fake check to James Kallam of Eden. James put his car for sale on Craigslist and ‘Gary’ contacted him wanted the car. ‘Gary’ sent James a check for $1,800 more than the asking price. ‘Gary' wanted James to deposit the check and send two random movers $900 a piece to come and move the car.
The problem with this scam is, by the time you deposit the check and send the money, the bank comes and tells you the check never cleared and it’s fake. Meaning you just sent your own money to a scammer.
We posted the story online and then we heard from Chris Hausner, who lives in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Looks like ‘Gary’ contacted Chris, wanting to do the same thing.
Chris was trying to sell his triathlon bike on Craigslist when ‘Gary’ contacted him.
“He wanted for his son,” Chris explained over the phone to Consumer Reporter Hope Ford. “We never spoke on the phone. Everything was via email.”
Funny, ‘Gary’ never wanted to talk to James on the phone either. Instead, ‘Gary’ was always busy and preferred to text only.
Anyway, ‘Gary’ told Chris, “He said he would send the check and I could wait until the check cleared and then he could send his movers to come and pick it up.”
James received similar instructions from ‘Gary.’ Almost identical stories. When Chris got suspicious about this ‘Gary’ person, he did a web search and 2WTK’s story popped up.
“The way it was written about the mover coming to get it and letting the check clear first. It was like, man, this is the exact same scam,” said Chris.
So, Chris told ‘Gary’ the deal was off. But, oh, that didn’t stop ‘Gary.’
“He wrote back, ‘am an honest person and I will make sure everything went well before picking it up. Here is the USPS tracking number. Once the check clears, my movers will come and pick it up.’”
Really, ‘Gary?’ REALLY?
After we got involved, ‘Gary’ stopped contacting Chris and James.
Now, we take a quick moment to apologize to any person actually named Gary Taylor who is legitimately trying to use Craigslist because this fake person is using that name to try and scam people.
And remember, the name could change. Today, it’s ‘Gary Taylor’. Tomorrow, it could be Cindy Lou Who. So, a few tips when dealing with strangers on re-sale sites.
If the person only wants to talk via email or text, never gives you their location, wants to send you a check for more money than you ask for and wants you to send them money back; consider these big red flags.
Chris ended up selling his bike to a person who paid cash. James never put his car back for sale on Craigslist.