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Bogus checks, wire transfer fraud and scams
Posted on Sep 29, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Ed Dickson, over at the Fraudwar blog, has an article that I wish citizen could read and every law enforcement officer would be trained on. It’s about this amorphous set of fraud and scams that are similar at one level, although they appear different. Read the whole article but here’s a key part:
I’ve put together a list of the known counterfeit items in circulation, along with the current telephone numbers to verify them. You might receive these items after being lured with a too good to be true come-on that doesn't make very much sense, if you think long and hard about it.
The other common denominator is that there will be a request to send the proceeds, minus your paltry cut (normally via wire transfer) back to the person sending you the instruments. That is (unless) they are buying goods from you. In this case, your property is what they want you to send to them.
Some of these lures include, but aren't limited to (new lures surface frequently), secret shopper, romance, lottery, work-at-home and auction scams.
Ed says he regularly receives email from victims, many of whom lose money, and some of whom are arrested. I myself receive these emails too, including one this week from a woman with four children who might be going to jail. Sad to see. One of the factors that make these scams so confusing, is that some of the “victims” are maybe culpable to a degree, happily participating in a scam as long as they can make a buck.
Comments
the resident on Aug 21, 2008
can a scam artist in a foreign country use just a persons name age adress and phone number and email address to steal identity. that is they do not have credit card numbers, or bank account numbers or banking info of any kind
Tom Fragala on Aug 22, 2008
@the resident on Aug 21, 2008 said:
"can a scam artist in a foreign country use just a persons name age adress and phone number and email address to steal identity. that is they do not have credit card numbers, or bank account numbers or banking info of any kind?"
the general answer is NO. however, it depends what you mean by "steal identity" and it depends on the scam artist's goals. it's possible they might use that information to get additional info from you or with info they already have on you. However, it's unlikely and you are probably safe if all you gave them was name, age, address, phone number, and email.
--tom
Tabitha on Dec 20, 2008
I received an e-mail to my buisness e-mail reguarding Daycare for their child. The person claims to live in another country at first i thought it was legit until i got a response saying they would mail me a check and i would take 3 days payment to hold a space for 3 weeks and wire transfer the rest - I mean really! I know thats a total scam. I was asked to answer questions with my name address age ethnicity and marital status. And to give my address for mailing.
I explained to this person i would not acceot anything for more than my fee and no mailed anything. I would accept a bank cashiers check but wire no money anywhere. As again i would not accept anything over my fee. And they had to pay 3 weeks to hold her place until they got here and then had to pay the regualr weekly schedule.
i then received a response where the story changed and I was being told basically that I would provide my address to them and they would have their "client" send me a check for 2900 dollars and i would cash it and wire transfer the remaining money minus 1 weeks fee (to hold their daughters place) to them in the UK. I told them to find daycare somewhere else and reported their e-mail address info and "name".
But can they be tracked down in any way? By having an e-mail is that something law enforcement even cares to do?
=============
Tabitha,
You can't really easily track someone running a scam via email who is in a foreign country. And the police won't care so don't waste your time. Think about it. There's no victim, no financial loss. And even if there was, local police don't investigate crimes like this and the amount would probably be too small for the FBI.
--tom, Truston
Maria Grimaldi on Apr 3, 2009
I live in Argentina, I was hired as a free lancer though Guru.com last year. I received my payments by checks. The last two checks were stolen in the US and cashed. This happened in june 2008 and I am still waiting for a resolution of the case. I sent the affidavits that the company was requested by the bank. I spent a lot of money as I had to travel to another city to have the US Embassy certfied my signature.
Right now I am thinking of hiring a lawyer to make a initiate a legal action as I´ve not received an answer from either the bank nor Guru.com.
What do you suggest me to do?
Thanks and regards
Maria Grimaldi
Vickie on May 19, 2010
I meant this person on a date website and then later moved to yahoo mesenger. He is a widow with a four year old, ownes a house(5 bed) and business in construction in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently in Nigeria on a business project and needs money (3,500) for consignment fees. He gave me a SS# that belongs to Elvis Presley and the physical address was townhomes.
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