was identity theft - now international transfers

[Innfogra at aol.com]

>What problems are there with the "international postal money order"?
>Can't you still get those at the local USPS office?
>
The only International money orders the US Post office will cash are their
 own and Canadian post. I know because I took a Japanese Postal International 
Money order once and the US Post wouldn't have anything to do with it. It was 
legitimate but I ended up having to deposit it to cash it. I do take Canadian 
Postal Money Orders now.

I have used the interbank for international money transfer once and it worked 
easily. I seem to remember that I had my credit union generate a transaction 
number along with the interbank number that I sent to the person purchasing 
the item. A couple of days later the money showed up in my Credit Union Account. 
However it cost me $10 for the transaction on my side, which I had the 
customer pay, after all he wanted to pay by wire transfer.

Nowadays I take Western Union Wire transfers, Western Union International 
Money Orders, Bidpay, Paypal or US dollars (Cash) for international purchases. 

I do not take Certified or Bank Checks, especially for amounts greater than 
the purchase. And I do not ship until I am certain I have payment.

Lately, in posting a HP110 outfit on the HP Museum's for sale site I received 
three fraudulent offers, and one serious one. Two of the offers were to 
purchase it with a certified check for a set amount, much more than the item and 
then have me forward the HP110 and the extra money on to them. The third 
fraudulent offer was a blatant offer to let me pad the invoice with other goods, name 
my own price, and get paid by a certified check. 

I was very disappointed to see that amount of scamming on the bulletin board. 
All were internationally based scams and easy to recognize, though.

Paxton
Astoria, Oregon
USA