You were asked in an email whether you would be willing to promote a firm by affixing a sticker with its emblem on your vehicle. They issued you a cheque for $3500 and instructed you to keep a part of it, stating that the other funds in the check were to pay for the individual who was going to wrap your vehicle.
Or, You have to work as a mystery shopper, and they promptly send you a payment of $4,950. After you had deposited the check, the next step was for me to purchase gift cards, scratch off the back of the card (which would expose the PIN), and then send the firm a photo of the cards by text message to demonstrate that you had purchased them. In addition, they expected you to buy a money order from a separate bank and then email a photo of it to them.
All these methods are being used by scammers nowadays. You may think, how can people fall into these kinds of traps at this time? Some activities or jobs can be made using check payments, and scammers take these opportunities to fraud people.
Below is a story of a swimming instructor who is familiar with being paid by check, and the method scammers use to fraud is very common to deceive people. Unfortunately, Tyler also fell into the trap.
Tyler, a swimming instructor at a local college, got an email from a father asking if he could coach his son, who was in high school, for the summer because he would be visiting his aunt. Tyler routinely provided private tutoring to different clients, so this request was not unusual, but the man’s intention to pay Tyler significantly more than his standard charge stood out. To pay for an airline ticket his son would require later that summer, the father offered to pay by check and requested Tyler to wire transfer a portion of the money to his travel agency.
The overpayment scam is a popular con that people fall for every time. You advertise something for sale in a classified section of a newspaper or on an online forum. Someone makes you an offer and sends you a check; it could even be a cashier’s check, which appears to be an exceptionally secure form of payment. Unfortunately, the check amount is significantly higher than what you had initially estimated for the item. The “buyer” will act as if there was an error and ask you to deposit the check and then reimburse them for the price difference.
Tyler accepted the check but was at first dubious due to the unusualness of the request. The man, however, clarified that this arrangement made things easier for him. In addition, Tyler’s girlfriend and other friends convinced him that since he had the check in hand, he had nothing to lose. These factors and Tyler’s sympathy for the son’s need for a coach contributed to Tyler’s decision to deposit the check and follow through with the assignment.
That is a con job. Fraudsters take advantage of the fact that banks must make the funds from a check deposit available to the account holder within a few days. Still, it can take a significantly longer period — sometimes weeks — for the bank to discover that the check was a fake, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). If the check turns out to be fraudulent, you will lose the money you gave to the con artist and any extra money you took out of the false check or spent before it was shown to be fraudulent. Unfortunately, financial institutions do not take on that risk.
When the bank debited the money to his account, Tyler reasoned that the check must be legitimate. Nevertheless, Tyler tried to transfer the funds immediately since the man insisted that his travel agent required the money. Tyler was fortunate that a worker at the wire transfer company reported the transaction as possibly fraudulent. According to an inquiry, the address of the “travel agent” was connected to earlier fraud.
Tyler almost lost money despite his concerns and attempts to confirm his assumptions by talking to his friends. However, his willingness to cooperate with the con artist may have been influenced by chance to earn more money and his desire to aid someone in need.
The complaints of bogus check or money order scams that the Better Business Bureau registered in 2021 resulted in a median loss of $1,475, making them the second-costliest con among those the organization monitors and reports on.
Due to the ease with which they may be carried out, con artists continue to fall for these schemes. A con artist may easily create a fake check, even a bank draft, certified check, or cashier’s check. Using a scanner, a high-quality printer, and a fake cheque will be very difficult to differentiate from the real one (see “6 Ways to Spot a Fake Check” below). According to the FTC, some counterfeit checks even include watermarks that seem legitimate but are fake.
Please report a scam to Report Scammed Bitcoin if you have already fallen prey to a bogus check scam and have lost or were about to lose money.
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We will provide you with a free consultation and advice on recovering the monies taken. However, we strongly advise you to seek assistance from such reputable and experienced professional recovery services as soon as possible. These firms specialize in the retrieval of misplaced or stolen money.
You can check our updated list of scammers in different categories. For example, we have lists of investment blacklists, forex scammer lists, cryptocurrency scammer lists, unauthorized brokers by FCA, and HYIP blacklists.
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