BY MATTHEW WEINBERGER
Monday, December 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM
He for News
Miram Choi wanted to sell furniture through an ad she put on craigslist. But she fell for a treacherous con and got taken for more than $3,000. The scammer was never caught.
When Miram Choi decided to leave Brooklyn to be with her parents in Kentucky, she decided to sell off some furniture on craigslist.org.
But her ad on the free site caught the attention of a scammer. Instead of selling a bar and cabinet set for $725, she got taken - for more than $3,000.
"I will like to know if the above item is still available for sale and I will like to buy this item so pleas do withdraw the advert from craigslist," read the first typo-ridden reply Choi got. "I will also like you to know that I will be paying via check."
There were ample reasons for Choi, a 31-year-old interior designer, to be skeptical, especially since craigslist warns sellers not to trust buyers from out of town trying to pay by check. The only name Choi ever got for the purported buyer was an e-mail name, "Heady Heady." The check arrived. It was issued from City National Bank of Florida and signed by someone named John Edwards, whom Heady Heady described as his financier. Also, the check was for $3,050, more than four times the price.
Still, she wasn't foolish enough to turn over the goods until the check cleared.
"He said, 'Wait until the check clears, then pay whatever's left to my movers,' " Choi recalled.
A week later, the money was credited to her account. Thinking she was in the clear, she sent money to an address the buyer supplied for the movers.
After the money arrived, Heady Heady was back in touch to say he didn't want the bar and cabinet set after all. Would she kindly wire back most of the original amount?
"He told me to take $135 for my trouble," said Choi, who was disappointed she'd have to sell the furniture yet again but figured she was still ahead.
Two weeks later, Choi's bank delivered disturbing news: the $3,050 check was counterfeit - and she was responsible for the full amount.
A spokeswoman for the bank, Washington Mutual, said it does not comment on individual cases. But the spokeswoman, Lisa Friedman, said that, according to federal law, money from deposited checks has to be made available no later than two business days, well before the bank can examine each check for signs of fraud.
"Forgeries can take days to weeks to be discovered," Friedman said. "The bottom line is that you are responsible for any funds you withdraw against that check." If she'd waited several weeks, Heady Heady might have angrily complained, but she wouldn't have lost money.
Choi's case isn't unusual. Dozens of New Yorkers using craigslist, as well as eBay, fall for similar scams every year.
"The fact is, quite often, folks are in a hurry to sell something, and they become a little less careful," said Susan MacTavish Best, a craigslist spokeswoman.
Both craigslist and eBay attempt to block scam attempts by banning known offenders and making sure users know the telltale signs of a ripoff.
Once someone is scammed and money changes hands, there's often not much the shopping sites, or the authorities, can do. EBay will reimburse users in cases of fraud for up to $200, but that's a small comfort when you get burned for thousands. Since craigslist is a smaller, less-centralized operation, the best site operators can typically offer is sympathy and a list of helpful phone numbers.
Since her run-in with Heady Heady, Choi has listed the bar and cabinet set on craigslist twice more, and both times responses only seemed to come from fellow fraud artists.
"These people are everywhere," she lamented.
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that's wrong. Wasn't a math issue tho.