Bad day at the Post Office: USPS Money Orders Confiscated!

[JJM]

Well, after 15+ years of online trading, dating back to the Usenet / BBS days (pre eBay) - back to about the advent of Yahoo! - I finally received (what I'm told by the local Postmaster) are fake money orders. I received them from another member on here in payment for 8 gold fractionals, which I have yet to send thankfully. The postmaster confiscated the MO's and I'm left holding the empty envelope. Quite upsetting, as the money was going towards a real estate deal that is closing tomorrow.

Has this happened to anyone else?

I did some google-ing last night upon returning home, and there are quite a few examples of over-zealous and / or ignorance on the part of USPS when it comes to money orders, and I certainly hope this is the case. I'm not going to name the member here, because at this point, it could very well be the PO that is at fault. I have asked him to remove any of his ads from the marketplace given the seriousness of the situation however, hopefully he sees this as a reasonable request. I know I would.

If this happened to you, how would you handle it?

[Market Harmony]

They must be fake USPS money orders, no? Did the postmaster explain to you how he knew they were fake? Did you get documentation from the postmaster that he confiscated them? You're safe in that you did not ship the items, but if the buyer swears they are authentic, then you will need some kind of proof that they were fake. Otherwise, the buyer may have documentation showing that they are real, and thus you will be on the hook for the items. In all fairness, protect yourself, but also keep in mind that the buyer may be innocent.

also, this thread does not belong in this section

[JJM]

Yes, it's only borderline relevent to the PM content of the forum. But at least as much so as much of the general market stuff, and a place where an inverse "caveot emptor" goes a long ways in a short time. Mods, feel free to move.

I hope they are real. It's a small town, they know me. They did not give me a receipt, I will get one today however. It SUCKS all the way around!

[highroller4321]

I know that when I go to a certain bank they always call into the post office to make sure the post office money orders are legit. I guess there are a ton of them out there...

I would talk to the member and see if he got them from the post office or where he even got them.

Yes, you NEED to get a reciept of the transaction and it being confinscated. With all you know the "post master" could have just needed $1000

[natsb88]

I always deposit them at the bank instead of emptying out the drawer at the Post Office. The bank checks them under a UV light (the security strip is supposed to glow red). They had one a few weeks ago where the security strip showed up black, and it turned out to be a fake. There are still a few Post Offices using the old style MOs, it's possible that's what triggered the Postmaster to think they were fake.

[tractorman]

It sounds to me like 2 postmasters need to speak to each other. If everything is on the up-and-up, this should be fairly easy to solve, no?

[JJM]

I've dug up the number to the postal place where they were bought, but I can't get them to answer. I'm going to hit my postmaster up with as much information as humanly possible, as I'm sure my problem isn't high on her priority list (which I can understand). Ironically, I couldn't even get the # to this place off USPS.com, or by calling USPS's 800#. And the number the 800# gave me, to the nearest main post office, rang in to a grocery store... It's days like this that leave me scratching my head over the TBTF giants...

USPS shows no record of this place, tracked it down by calling various places at the U. where they were purchased.

Just got off the phone with place where they were purchased, a substation of some sorts located in a university bookstore, and YES, they are real. "Much ado about nothing" I'm afraid....

+ 1 for another honest real center

- 1 for the USPS

[Robarons]

One interesting issue that seems to trip up the post office office employees is that from what I am told local smaller PO's use money orders that are ripped from the left side in a book rather than from the top like in sheets.

This has always threw up a red flag and made the post office employees and postal master very curious and suspicious of where they came from. In the end they cashed them and had no issues.
Yours did have the water mark, security tape, and all the correct security functions right?

You have to have some skill to fake a postal money order- being able to get the water mark right and security strip correct to stiff people on realcent must be worth it?

[cfnnb]

Didn't see this post until just now. I was the person that sent the money orders. They were from a station inside of my universities store which has a post office and laundry mat. I have talked to them and talked to the postmaster. I hope everything ends up working out as I would never rip someone off.

[JJM]

As noted in my last post above, all is well. I wasn't going to name you cfnnb, but since you jumped in I'll also note this.

Not only did he send the real deal, as we all do around here, he jumped through a bunch of hoops this morning helping make sure things got squared away on my end. Many thanks for going above and beyond!

[OtusLotus]

maybe I am missing something...

The postmaster, went into your envelope, opened it up, confiscated your m.o. and then delivered you an empty envelope?

They have fake USPS money order dogs?

[TXBullion]

maybe I am missing something...

The postmaster, went into your envelope, opened it up, confiscated your m.o. and then delivered you an empty envelope?

They have fake USPS money order dogs?

That or when he went to go cash it. I like the dog story better though

[cfnnb]

He was cashing it when this happened. I talked to the postmaster at the branch that said it was a fake and she said the ink was pressed weird or something. She was not very friendly to me. But i wasn't to happy with her either. She told me to no longer use that post office until they have there investigation staff come and look at the money order machine

[Hades12]

Glad it worked out. When I am afraid of the transcations in any way I ask for a Postal MO so I can cash it at the desk. Have had a few Craigslist offers that quite emailing once I ask for the Postal MO.

[Lemon Thrower]

depositing at your bank is not a solution. when your bank accepts your deposit, it has the right to charge it back to you if its fake. your deposit bank then presents it to usps who transfers money to your deposit bank to make your deposit bank whole. but usps will eventually realize it paid on a bogus MO, and will then collect back from your deposit bank who will then take the funds out of your account. all you are doing is postponing the inevitable and making it look like you were part of somebody's else's fraud.