Pam Bono Designs

And you thought you had just joined a really active quilting BLOG - right? Well, it will get better after our move. Robert is packing my stash of books that will go in my office and I am working on the 7th block for our Mystery Block-of-the-Month, which I will post on Facebook when we have it online. Wanted to get this done now, because the closer we get to the end of the month, I will have NO TIME!

I have got to share this with my quilting friends because I really think that folks our age are prey for anyone out there that can possibly pull any kind of scam. Now this one is something new that I have never seen, and we learned something today.

We have several items that we do not want to haul back to Colorado, so I put them on Craigslist. I don't know how many of you have Craigslist in your area, but it's a big deal here in Georgia. I had never heard of it until we moved to Georgia. You have to know Robert's sense of humor to appreciate this, but about 10 years ago, we vacationed in Idaho, and I fell in love with a log bed. Now this is not an ordinary log bed, so I am posting a photo of it. It's completely Alder Wood and completely hand crafted. I was never in love with log beds until I saw this one because I considered it a piece of art. To make a long story short, I had it shipped to Colorado, and it was a pain in the neck to put together, but we did it! Robert never gave any opinion about this bed until we got it up and in place; then he tells me: "This makes me feel like I am in a refugee camp, reaching my hands between the posts begging for rice - please give me some rice!" I offered to sell it but he stuck with it all of these years.

We saw no way that it will work in the bedroom in our new home, and Robert was delighted, so I put it on Craigslist a couple of days ago to sell it. NEVER PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ON CRAIGSLIST! I didn't know that, but now I do. So you can call me naive!

I started getting these emails from people who wanted to buy it. One woman wanted it shipped and was sending a cashiers check (with enough to cover shipping) and promised payment by courier. Two others wanted to send payment (cashiers checks - all of them) and wanted our name to put on the check, our address (where to have the bed picked up), our CELL PHONE number and that was about all. Well, I figured the first lady was pretty safe. None of them asked for any information that would have given them a chance for identity theft. That kind of information we do not give out. So - name, address and phone - right?

Robert called our bank and we read some of the warnings on Craigslist - so this is the scam:

They send you a cashiers check (which I always thought was safe) and they get the item. You do not have any personal information about them up front. They do not call you on a normal phone (caller ID), they just send the cashiers check, have the item picked up and then.........about 10 days later, when it's too late, the bank finds out it's a phony cashiers check and your bank charges YOU! Someone out there is going to tell me we were dumb not to know that you could get phony cashiers checks, but our bank verified it, and that was one I really didn't know about.

Obviously we are not even thinking of selling to these people, but its just a new one I haven't heard of and it's something that should be shared with as many people as possible. So the refugee bed may go home with us, but at least we are more knowledgeable.

P.S. I still think the bed is a work of art!!