Scam Check Gets Woman Sued

from the follow-the-story dept

Mon, Jul 19th 2004 2:23am — Mike Masnick

I have to admit that I was quite confused by this account in the Washington Times of a woman who "won" a $13,000 check in an online contest, but is now being sued by her credit union because the check bounced. That's basically all of the details the story gives, but if you dig a bit deeper into the details of the story it turns out to be much more complex. The woman does apparently play a lot of internet sweepstakes related things, but that doesn't appear to be where this money came from. Instead, it came from a popular update on the traditional 419 scam. In this case a scammer offers to send the sucker a check for a certain amount of money. The sucker is then supposed to wait five days until the check clears, and then pass on most of the money to another account. It's only after this that it's determined the check is really counterfeit and the victim is left holding the bag. So, in this case, the woman received the check for $13,000, but said she believed it was a scam all along, and was shocked when she actually got it (in fact, it sounds like the check was a shift in strategies after the scammers first tried to phish her social security number and bank account info out of her -- which she refused to do). She went and asked the credit union in question, the local police, and the Better Business Bureau to get advice on what to do with it, assuming it was fake. They all told her that if it was a cashier's check, then it was real. The credit union explained the waiting period, and she followed all their rules to the letter. Then, once she was told the check was good, she withdrew most of the money and spent it on a variety of things rather than sending it to the scammers - believing she had tricked them instead. She went back to the credit union a few days later by which point they had been informed the check was fake. When they said something about calling the police, the woman freaked out and ran out of the credit union. Now, they're suing her for the money she spent. The woman is obviously not the most sophisticated internet user, but she certainly did do her best to find out if the check were counterfeit before spending any of the money. Realistically, the problem here is with the system that "clears" a check before it's been determined as counterfeit.

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7 Comments

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eeyore, 19 Jul 2004 @ 4:09am

similar and not new
A coworker of mine has had this happen five or six times now while selling cars online. Somebody from overseas will send a cashier's check for about twice the cost of the car so they can pay somebody to pick up the car and pay to have it shipped overseas. The first time it happened she told them they'd have to wait until the check cleared and the bank told her that it had to be valid because it was an American Express check. Two weeks later it bounced. Fortunately she hadn't actually cashed it. When she tried to call the guy back naturally he denied having anything to do with it. She still sells cars online but refuses to accept any payment for more than the auction price and states there is a two-week hold on all checks, and she still gets overseas bidders trying the same scam.
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- Mike (profile), 19 Jul 2004 @ 4:17am
  
  Re: similar and not new
  Yup. That's why I said it was a popular update on the scam... I wasn't implying that it was new at all, just weird that woman got sued.
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aNonMooseCowherd, 19 Jul 2004 @ 5:47am

no definitive waiting period
The problem is that apparently there is no way to be certain that a purported cashier's check is legitimate -- there is no specific time limit after which the check can no longer be contested as a forgery.
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- grimix, 19 Jul 2004 @ 7:39am
  
  Re: no definitive waiting period
  Sounds like PayPal
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  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2004 @ 9:51am
    
    Karma Chameleon
    
    Glad to see the no good lyin' slut slammed for trying to be a part of the whole scam in the first fucking place. The dumb twat has no business involving herself in something illegal and unethical no matter what Mike's perceived good intentions of this cunt's are.
    
    Karma bit her in the ass and got a mouthful.
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    - Linda, 16 Feb 2007 @ 3:15pm
      
      Re: Karma Chameleon
      Sounds like you hate women, no matter what! What horrible thing did your mother do to you besides cause you to be born? Sounds like she should have cut your tongue out and cut off your fingers. Could be you resent being born a Male, which I cetainly can understand, and are just plain ole jealous. So sue your mother!
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- Pinkpanther, 29 Nov 2007 @ 5:59pm
  
  Re: no definitive waiting period
  Well I will say this I wish I had read this earlier. I received a check in the mail as well and it seemed to have come at the right time. I was broke and had been out of work for a little more than 8 weeks. I had went out that morning and when I returned there was a envelope on my front step it had come from USP well it was addressed to me so I opened it. Low and behold it wasa check for 6,750 God do you know what I could do with this kind of money. Well I went into the house and immediatly when online to see if this was really a company I couldn't find what I was looking for so I called the Bank for which it was drawn on Citi Bank. I explained that I had received the check but wasn't sure where it came from I gave her the information and told her that I had een in a accident months earlier but I wasn't sure if this was the money because it was far more than the estimate was for the repair of my car. She checked the routing number and the account number and told me that it was no such account. I just so glad I didn't do what I wantwed to do because I would have been in a world of trouble and no one to bail me out. What made this strange is this. I read another article similar to this and the people it happen too indicated that the scam came after they placed an ad on CRAIGSLIST. I placed an ad on Craigslist a few days earlier.
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