<prompt> Human: Perhaps you guys can offer some insight, apologies for the long explanation but I dont want to leave anything out...So Im in NYC and I have items I sell locally on Craigslist using a CL-specific email always using the relay option so as to not give out the actual email and I use a dummy number as well for the account to protect my actual. Most transactions are simple enough.. people email or text me about a specific item, I give them the info they need, they come pick said item up with cash, and thats that. I dont like to meet people at specific locations, and I dont like to ship things unless its convenient.. Id rather people just come by and meet me in my lobby plenty of people around and well call it a day. Once in a while someone will ask to pay via PayPal or Venmo which is fine, Ive never had a problem to-date. I do get scamming messages from time to time but thankfully Ive got an eye for spotting them theyll email me asking me to email them back at a different address, or theyll ask me to ship the item and theyll send me a money order, blah blah etc. This time Im not quite sure what to make of what seemed like a prospective buyer:He messages me from a 347 area code NYC number, so far so good I figured.. most scammers try and contact me from bizarre area codes, and says he loves a 1k watch Im selling.. says he wants to get it for his uncle. Wanted to know if I could ship it for him if he paid extra offered 60.. this was not typical but I figured it was fine by me since it was already packaged up and Id just need to drop it to the UPS store great experience with the service so its my go-to. He asked for a video of the watch movement, so I obliged. Once he approved, he then lays it on me: he asks if he can send payment via Chase QuickPay. Now I dont have Chase, but I know friends who do and given the bank I have, I know its possible to accept payment from Chase to my bank since they are partners.. so I give him the benefit of the doubt and tell him to send payment over just needs my name and bank-related email, I reluctantly gave it over. Sure enough I get a legit payment notification from the bank, but its for 1560.. they sent 500 too much. Im not sure why, so I tell him the deal and he says oh no problem just go ahead and refund the 500, my mistake. When I asked for the name and email to transfer the back over, they say oh sorry Id prefer you send me a money order. heres the address: 1234 blah blah lane.. leave the money order blank, thanks. So begins my suspicions.As Im trying to figure out what the guys deal is in this moment, I then get a message from him saying OH hey man sorry, I just showed the watch to my uncle and he doesnt like it. Please send all the money back and keep 100 for yourself for the trouble. Now Im on high alert, realizing that this feels like a clearing scam. So I call my bank and ask when the payment would clear and they said it could take up to 11 business days. FINE BY ME, and I let the prick know I wasnt going to send anything to him until his payment cleared, period. There was ghetto cursing, threats to expose me to the LAW if I didnt send the money ASAP but I stood my ground. Today 5 days later and to my surprise, I found that the payment actually cleared, so I was a bit confused.. as if maybe he wasnt trying to scam me and was actually just an idiot? At that point and after a ton of angry messages on my dummy line, I just wanted the guy out of my hair.. mind you, he has access to my CL listings as well as my actual name and bank email -- so Id prefer that things didnt escalate with him trying to look me up or something. I told him I wasnt going to send a blank money order bc that sounded fishy. I asked him for the Chase name and email so I could send the money back the way it came, but he kept saying sorry I dont have that account anymore, you cant send it to me that way.. instead he tells me to take 160 upd from 100 of the 1560 for my trouble, gives me a name and tells me to deposit the money at a Wells Fargo for him. Again, just wanting to get the prick out of my hair I oblige while out handling errands a branch was along the way -- how about a Wells Fargo manager had to take me aside and tell me that they couldnt accept the deposit for the account?? Im literally like WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON at this point..I went off on the guy, asking him what the fuck his deal is considering I was trying to do him a favor.. finally, he just apologized and asked if I could send payment via Western Union. Now Im sitting on 1400 from a very suspicious dude and Im not sure what to make of it. Was this guy just an amateur scammer that didnt expect for me to wait for the payment to clear? Am I being overly generous by trying to send the pricks money back? Technically he did nothing wrong besides being a humongous pain in the ass.. but Im not sure what to do now.---UPDATE: 42417 Basically I got extremely lucky guardian angel looking out for me, good karmic energy, whatever it is Ill take it because my saving grace was that Wells Fargo did not accept the deposit that I thought was legitimate because the initial payment transfer had cleared. I spent those next couple of days dealing with BOAs fraud department reps, and basically broke down the entire tale.. being sure to include every sordid detail regardless of whether it made me look like an idiot. They logged all the info down and said it was extremely fortunate that not only had I been calling them from the get-go to chronicle the entire experience to show that I wasnt a part of this scam, but that in the end I had all the money in my account. They mentioned that although it was a bit more sophisticated than the older clearing scam, this was the type theyve been hearing about more and more lately which ends up leaving the poor schmuck me holding the bag. They created a case, put a hold on the funds, said theyd reach out to Chase if Chase didnt reach out to them first considering the account holder likely flagged the charge for investigation at this point, gave me the case details and recommended I file a police report at my local precinct.Meeting with the police didnt go over so well -- I was relieved at first because the first cop I spoke with said that he, like myself at first, didnt understand how it was all a scam in the first place if the payment transfer cleared. Then another with a bit more experience in the matter came along and heard me out.. said that I couldnt file a report until the banks investigation came back and unequivocally determined fraud, and recommended I come back once that happened with copies of the banks findings as well as my bank statement. Unfortunately as Id come to find later, the banks investigation wouldnt technically result in fraud considering I was the one who voluntarily provided my name and bank-related email to accept the initial transfer in the first place. Had the Wells Fargo deposit gone through, the police understandably wouldve considered me complicit.. a bit disconcerting to say the least. Its a bummer because I really wouldve loved for the police to try and nab these pricks I was still stringing them along in text messages at this point to keep them engaged for the police but it wouldnt go anywhere if I couldnt prove fraud. My gf recommended I reach out to the FBI as well in case they could do something, but Im afraid the result wouldve been the same.In the end, I told the bank of my attempt with the police and they explained the fraud conundrum.. so they placed an expedited request on the hold for the funds to be sent back to the Chase customer as soon as possible. They briefed me that Id hear back regarding the investigation in the coming weeks, but that Id not be held complicit in the scam considering my cooperation from the beginning when I first flagged the transfer. As such, the closing of my account would not be likely, although they said I should consider changing my bank-related email in case I keep hearing from the scammer I got some half-assed corny FBI threat from them, but nothing else since.Needless to say, its been an adventure. Cant tell you all how grateful I am for your 0.02 on the matter, it helped me a great deal. I will be taking and enforcing a lot of the advice I received here, including sticking to cash transactions from now on as well as moving my meeting location from my lobby regardless of how well-lit, well-populated it is to the local drugstore.. I guess I never considered the possibility that someone could take things to the next level which could jeopardize not only myself, but even my gf or the people in my building. Truly thankful! To those conducting online transactions similar to my own experience, please be careful and please be wary.. there are some real shitty people out there.  <response>: Please follow the advice of uhyrle. Theres a very high chance near 100 that the money will turn out to be stolen or will be pulled back by some means, and youll be out 1,400. This is a very common scam. 