Paying with a cashiers check? Need advice!

Years ago, back in 2003, I prepaid $1k for a "good deal" amplifier here on AGON by cashiers check to a AG seller who also sold the same item to 12 other people by cashiers check.

AG refused to do anything about it. They said it was a private sell between buyer and seller.

Moral of the story. Never, ever, prepay via a cashiers check. I never saw that $1k ever again. The police reported that the seller’s address was actually a PO Box that he signed up for with a FAKE ID.

Purchase prepaid via a cashiers check at your own peril.

Am I the only one who was on here before Paypal existed? Back in the day, say circa 2000, you mailed the seller a check, and the seller would ship when the check cleared!  Obviously times, and Paypal, have changed things, but with an established seller and a transaction that felt right I would have no problem sending someone a check.

I joined AG in 1997 when AG first began. I was contacted by an AG agent posting on Usenet, advising a new website for audio sells was available. The website looked a lot different back then. There was a scroll board that refreshed with new sells and buys every 24 hours.

Who else here remembers Audio Web, another common site for sells, as well. It was the wild west, and back then we bought and sold via usenet as well. We prepaid for everything, sending checks and money orders everywhere. This was from 1995 on until the very early 2000’s, and about then things changed. There was a segment of the population that weren’t as honest so you had to conduct buying and selling differently. It began with fraudulent Cashiers Checks, as I recall. PayPal was nonexistent.

A few years ago I sold something to a guy in TX who said, with this purchase he was back on Audiogon after several years' hiatus.  He told me that he previously purchased a McIntosh amp on the site, and received a McIntosh amp carton that was packed with phone books.  As the seller was also from TX, he was able to get law enforcement to intervene and eventually got his money returned.

Last year we did a major interstate move, to a home where I didn't need my Honda snowblower.  Long-story-short, I listed the Honda on the local Craigslist and received what looked like a cashier's check, but it was a fraud...one that the FBI was familiar with!