Someone tried a funny scam on me a few years ago. I was selling a dining room set online. Someone said he wanted it, offered what I was asking. But he was moving - needed to send a moving company to pick it up to bring it to his place down south. He sent me a check, and contacted me to make sure I got it. I didn’t recognize the bank - I brought it to my bank, and they said it looked like fraud. I called the deal off and the guy ghosted me.
But imagine how many fall for this kind of thing. They get a check that bounces, and they lose their furniture - someone working with the scam artist takes it and fences it. Must happen every day in a country of 350 million. You won’t find this in a spreadsheet, and it generates the sort of weary malaise that makes people distrustful of fellow ‘community members’ and social scientist cheerleaders who always say everything is getting better.