A month ago I advertised my car for sale on Toytown.

I recieved a reply through Email who then offered to buy the car.

THe deal was that he would pay the asked 2900euro for ther car but that he would send through a bank cheque for 5000 euro, to cover the shipping.

I was to forward the extra on to the shipping company once the cheque was cleared into my account. Sounded safe enough if the cheque was cleared. I was told they were from West Africa.

Well the cheque arrived and was banked and then the cheque cleared into my account. It was in there and cleared for two whole days before the bank discovered the forged cheque and reversed the funds.

The names used were Steven Perker and Donald Shipping.

DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE, AND LOOK OUT FOR THIS SCHEME...

Luckily for me the friend transfering the funds for me was delayed and we discovered the fraud just hours before the transfer was made, even though the cheque had been cleared for two days.

That's an old scam, very common on ePay.

The cheque didn't "clear", it was only accepted by the bank. Once a cheque "clears", there's no longer any question and the issuing bank deals with it. This is the reason that anyone accepting cheques from strangers requires a two-week waiting period so that the cheque has time to clear.

woof.