On Marketplace?! This blows my mind that you think this. It's a chaotic nightmare. Sellers post everything as free and then separately negotiate a price. Buyers repeatedly ask you if something's still available. Both of these mean something's very wrong with how people understand to use the system.
someone has said "your price is fair, my agent will be over to pick it up with a cashier's check" for every single thing I've sold on craigslist. I don't think filtering out scumbags like this is a terribly hard problem.
When I sell something on Craigslist, it's cash-only and they have to meet me at a public place and pick up the item in person. And I verify the bills are not counterfeit before I hand over the item.
This is what it's come to. Probably because the police can't be bothered with minor fraud nowadays, and the criminals know it.
Basically, the bank will cash it, and days later, discover it's fake and demand that YOU give them the money back. There's a time delay which the scumbags are exploiting.
Cops put "financial crimes" way down their priority list.
I think the only risk there would be identity theft leading to payment with stolen money, but they're almost certain to get caught so it's fine.
If that's a concern: If you make sure the transfer comes from a business checking account, they only have 24 hours to report the fraud before the business is on the hook for the stolen money and not you(I think). I'm not sure if personal vs. business are externally-distinguishable in an automated way, however.
For every seller doing things the old way, there’s a handful of people doing things the cordial and respectful way, putting an effort into it. It’s getting better. You do have to learn how to read the page, but I don’t see how they could fix that.