I think I have just been scammed with the sale of an antique…

Hello Jacustomer,

Yes, I'm afraid you may have fallen for an advance fee scam. If your buyer rather than you chose the carrier, then the only reason for him to have paid you more than he needed to and to require you to wire the money to the freight company instead of him taking care of that part of it himself, is that the check is going to bounce, and you're going to be out your money and your antiques. I would note that $2,305 seems like an excessive fee for a freighter. Also, Craig's list is supposed to be for local pick-up only, which is yet another problem. Finally, one should never send anything Western Union (untraceable) unless you know the recipient personally or have dealt with him many times before.

Hopefully, you got to Western Union in time to cancel the transaction before the pick up. Get to your bank ASAP and see what may yet be done. Banks, unfortunately, are required by the Federal Government to allow a check to be drawn upon by an account holder two days after it is deposited. Scammers know how to play with the routing codes, so that the fraud is not detected until the check bounces some 4 to 6 weeks late. If this check is bogus, laws do protect the banks and not the account holder, which would make you responsible for the overdraft.

As you want to make it clear that you are a victim here, you do want to report the fraud to your local police as well as the FBI's Internet Crimes Complaint Center, online at IC3.gov