... But I can't cash it, because it's a scam. Got it in the post this morning, which was a pretty fucking nice way to wake up let me tell you! But looked into it and, as expected, it was too good to be true. Let me break it down for you: They send me the cheque with the idea I cash it at my bank, take $150 as a fee for myself, and send the rest via Western Union to a "Sean X" in London, England ("X" being where my last name would be, or yours.) in what is apparantly a mystery shop to test Western Union's service... But what actually happens according to THIS PAGE is that the cheque will bounce gloriously, and I'll be hounded by the company to pay them back the full $1900 out of my own pocket. If I hadn't just gotten a job, I might have been tempted to work my way around this somehow. But if anyone else gets stuff like this, send the cheque back to them ASAP. I'm also going to Western Union and the bank the cheque came from (In this case, CIBC) and see if they can do anything about it. Anyone else received shit like this in the mail?
my father in law received a check like that for an apartment he was trying to rent, and it screwed him over royally...really wish he had looked it over, and called me or his daughter beforehand...but good catch man...that woulda sucked...
Yeah, I got one for the Carribean Cruise line about two weeks back. It looked convincing enough that I got on the phone with their sales girl...at the same time, I sat down at google and started typing in the address, the phone number, etc. The address of their "corporate office - ticket distribution division" came up on Google maps as a residence in a ghetto part of Florida. The phone number came up with multiple "SCAM - DO NOT TRUST" web forum posts. The website itself was great - tons of INFO on this awesome cruise line, but NOWHERE to book! I hung up on the woman just as she was getting to the "...and this entire trip is free, but we cannot by law pay for the port fees, which are a nominal fee of $25 per traveler."
good catch , me and my ex-girlfriend got caught by one and we are still paying off what we lost due to it ($3500) the check was to her and i told her i wasn't sure but she said it was fine and even though iadvided her to just deposit it and wait and see if it cleared she went and deposited part of it and spent the rest, this part of why she is my EX girlfriend, as the account was a joint one so i am on the hook for it as well
I can't believe people still fall for this kind of scam. Large unsolicited genuine checks simply do not arrive in the mail - and if they do, you certainly aren't going to have to send most of it back.
Well now, apparantly I've got to go to the police now... Went to Western Union an they about freaked out when i showed them what I had. Told me to go the nearest station ASAP so they could try catching them.
The scam is pretty simple, but people fall for it all the time. Typically a person will have an add out to rent an apartment or to sell something. The buyer (the criminal) will send a fake draft or money order to the seller. Explain that the made the draft for extra to cover costs or what not. They ask the seller to wire the extra money back to them, usually in china. Then the draft comes back as fraud and the seller is out all the money and sometimes out the product that they were selling. As for stupidity, I work at a bank and see this shit daily. People are so in love with the idea of getting something for free and never stop to think. Unfortunately in this case the seller, or bank customer is on the hook for the money and it could be thousands depending on the scam.
I've had no end of scam offers since I've been looking for work... They got my details off the Workopolis profile I had, which I've taken down now. Apparantly, my landlord's wife gets these offers all the time, up to the point they see it as normal over here!
probably why there is an upswing as they figure out of work people are more likely to fall for it as they might really need the money
Something for nothing does not, never has, nor never will exist. These scammers just prey on the general Greed of society (which in turn is what is destorying society; greed not scammers) Thanx Transbot90210
I had the same thing happen to me....short story.... I was trying to sell my old truck for $500 and the guy said he would send me a check for $2000 to pay for the shipping of the truck to him back to Georgia. When I got the check he wanted me to cash the check at MY bank and then Western Union the money to a 3rd party to pay for the pick up of the truck, but the thing that got my attention was the 3rd party lived in Georgia as well. I emailed him back asking him to give me his phone number so I could call him and confirm everything...well never heard anythign back from him again....SCAM
When I was selling a comic book on Ebay a few years back this happened to me. Before Ebay had zero feedback and international buyer filters, this zero feedback bidder from overseas somewhere(it clearly stated in my auction that I didn't sell to zero feedback OR overseas buyers BTW) hit my $1800 "buy it now" button like an hour after I listed it. He then sent me the generic scam email asking me the condition of the "item"(pretty stupid question considering it was professionally graded), and that he would send me a check for $900 over my BIN price...yadda...yadda...yadda....send him the difference....yadda...yadda. You know the drill. I was so pissed because I knew damned well what was up. I contacted Ebay and told them what was up so I wouldn't have to pay the huge final value fees and whatnot. Thankfully Ebay waived all the fees and I relisted it. I emailed the "buyer" and told that our deal was null and void because he obviously didn't read my auction description/rules and I felt it was a scam anyway. I told him I reported him to Ebay and he was NARU'd in a couple of hours. Anyway my new auction ended pretty close to my BIN price, right around $1700. So it ended well but could have been a disaster had I fallen for the scam. I would have been out a very expensive and very rare book AND several hundred dollars. Its been going on for so long now that I can't believe people are still falling for this scam.
I fell for these a few times when I was a kid. Mom was like "it's a scam , just hang up the phone", Im like "But mom it's a FREE trip to Hawaii, wtf mom dude " I was pretty naieve. I even freaked out when Superman got smashed by those 2 buses in Superman 2. They kilt him
