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I've read all these posts and I'm not sure the most common tool used by the fraudsters is being clearly explained. Many have mentioned 'making sure the check has cleared,' which misses the point.
Banks are under an obligation to put deposited funds into your account so that they are available to you in a relatively short period of time. A short period of time as in a couple days or so. If you accept a totally phony cashier's check (nonexistent bank, or nonexistent account, for example) the bank WILL "clear" the check in the sense that you can check your balance and see the money there. And you can take it out. That will happen in 2 or 3 days. The check "clearing" doesn't mean it was real.
That doesn't really mean you are out of the woods. It can take 10 to 14 days or more for the fake check to work its way through the system and come to the attention of your bank as being fraudulent. Once that happens -- and believe me there will be no delay here -- your bank will take that money out of your account or out of any other account you have at the bank. The scam takes advantage of the float time; i.e., the time between the moment your bank has to put the money into your account (by law) and make it accessible to you and how long it takes for the bogus check to come back as bogus. If you've taken the money out (or some of it out) you're not off the hook and the bank will come after you aggressively for the balance or the whole amount if you took all of it. Once you understand the key to this, it is hard to blame your bank. You, after all, deposited a fake check. You chose to do business with the person who gave it to you.
So, as some have asked, are cashier's checks worthless from a safety point of view? No, not at all. But you meet at the buyer's bank and you stand with the buyer as they tell the cashier how to make the check out and which account they want to take it out of and how much it will be for. Then you hand over the keys. Do this and you're golden. Only a script writer is going to physically create a bank and populate it with phony bankers and customers to fool you. I wouldn't trust a bank employee (most of whom are paid miserable sums) to "verify" any check for you and most of them will decline to get involved in that way.
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