Counterfeit Check and Cashier's Check Scams

[KA9FOX]

Here's how the Counterfeit Check /Cashier's Check scam works:

The key ingredients:

• selling on-line
• buyers from a foreign country
• offering to pay with bank cashier's checks
• wants to pay several thousand dollars more than the asking price, and
• wants you to send back the difference.

The details: You are selling an item over the Internet - it could be a ham radio or motorcycle, or even puppies. You receive an email offer to buy at your asking price - say, $4000 - and the buyer says he'll send a bank cashier's check. The buyer is from a foreign country... usually Nigeria or "West Africa" but lately we have seen them from just about anywhere.

At the last minute the buyer asks to send you a cashier's check for $3000 MORE than your asking price, and asks you to send him the difference -- "but only after the cashier's check clears, of course." (Perhaps he explains that someone in the U.S. owes him $7,000 and it would be simpler if that person just sent the cashier's check to you and you sent him the $3,000. Or, perhaps he says he needs the extra dollars for shipping.)

You are skeptical - but, sure enough, the bank cashier's check arrives by Fed Ex, it looks real, your bank accepts the check, and the bank assures you the funds are in fact available. So you wire $3,000 to your buyer in the foreign country and prepare to ship your item.

A week later your bank calls: "We're very sorry, but the cashier's check was counterfeit" -- a superb copy, but worthless. Your account is frozen. You must pay the bank back $7,000. You may even be considered a fraud suspect yourself. Your "buyer" disappears. (About the only good news: sellers rarely get to the point of shipping their car or animals or items abroad.) This scam is cheating people nationwide.

Stay clear of this scam!

Read more about it here:
http://kyattorneygeneral.com/news/2003rel/checkscam.htm
http://www.state.ia.us/government/ag/consumer/advisories/Nigeria_Mar_2003.html
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2002/12/prweb52153.php

Many more sites available about this scam, just search google.com and you will find them.

[w8jn]

remember all items deposited take 5 - 14 days to clear the original bank... a "counterfeit" cashiers check will "bounce" a long time after you wire the cash.. i am holding a BEAUTIFUL counterfeit bank check sent by "his client" i was aware of the scam in advance, and i toyed with the guy to see if i could get him to send me a check. it really is a very good copy , watermark and all.. framed and posted on my wall... be carefull out there paul w8jn

[N5LON]

I have been "dealing" with a guy named Hank Thomas (or Hank Thoms) on a radio that I had for sale. It was one of those deals where he wanted to send me a Money Order for $1000 for a $75 radio, and I was to cash it and he'd arrange pickup of the cash and radio (he was supposedly sending the radio to his client in Malta and that was the smallest denomination of MO they could get). Of course I knew the scam and got the post office involved right away. They have had a rash of fake MOs lately and really have no interest anymore. I even got the guy to relinquish control of this deal to me, where I was calling all the shots when I refused to Western Union the money to him...claiming I was an invalid and couldn't get to Western Union. He finally agreed to have Fed Ex pick up the package of money and radio (they even came here today for it), so I know the address it's going to is legitimate (in NY). Do you think the PO would even act on this? Not even chasing shadows here, we have a definate pickup point, and they don't even care. Guess this fake-money-order-thing would be a great business to get into...it's apparent it's not against the law if enough people do it. At least that's what the PO told me indirectly, ("there's so many people doing it now that we just can't follow up on the leads.") I guess if everyone shoots someone, then it's a crime that becomes legal by default!

[KA9FOX]

I wonder if the local police would be interested? There has to be some agency that would assist... or maybe it's time to document this and talk to your congressmen.

- Scott

[ScamVictimsUnited.com]

We have a website for victims of these scam and we are trying to put together a letter writing campaign to bring more media attention to these scams.

Feel free to stop by and find out more info on our fight.

[N2CUE]

So far in the past week i have recieved over five thousand five hundred dollars worth of them and the same thing goes, i cash,i pay them. I look at them and say thats nice too bad i can really go shopping with these things, i'd have a field day.

but enough of that i went as far as to contact interpol to report these people. If you recieve mail through yahoo mail, you can show the original ip address of their computer used to send the emails, and so i took all the ip address of the emails i recieved from nigeria and i put into a list and sent it off to interpol to see if they can do something about it. I never heard back from them. what a shame.

[VE2AMN]

Interpol is not the right place.
In the US, it`s the Secret Service that takes care of the Nigerian scam, so I suppose that it`s the same thing for this one.
Try their web site for the procedure.