Posted on 04/02/2007 4:16:16 PM PDT by fanfan
A new twist on an old scam is targeting students trying to sublet their apartments as the school year winds down.
Officials with Libro Financial Group, the region’s largest credit union, say they have warned about six to eight members in recent weeks and stopped them from falling prey to the scheme.
“It’s troubling because it’s a plausible scheme and it’s going after a vulnerable population,” said Harry Joosten, Libro’s vice-president of member relations.
The scamster, claiming to be a foreign student from Africa, sends an e-mail offering to sublet an apartment and quickly sends a US money order by courier for an amount far more than the advertised rent.
Sometimes the money is sent from Britain or another country where the foreign student’s parent are supposed to live.
The scamster then quickly contacts the subletting student, explaining they accidentally sent too much money. They ask the student to cash the money order and return the difference.
The money order, which can take over a week to clear the financial institution, later turns out to be bogus.
Joosten said the scam seems to be widespread, judging by the number of incidents Libro has seen in recent weeks. One of the scam e-mails was received by the son of the firm’s chief financial officer.
Jan Delaney of the Better Business Bureau of Western Ontario said variations of the bouncing cheque/money order scam have been around for several years.
Sometimes the victim is selling a car in the classified ads or an item on eBay. Others are told they have won a lottery or vacation but have to return a “registration fee.”
She said consumers should be wary and wait until the cheque/money order clears before sending back any money.
“If they send you too much money and ask for some of the money back, that’s when you should look out,” said Delaney
The scam depends on getting the fool to "send the difference" before the "check" is determined to be bogus. I have one of those checks sent to "buy" my Porsche 914. It was an obvious bogus job printed on an inkjet color printer. I didn't even waste the gas to take it to the bank.
One strange thing about banks is that they maximize their use of your money. I asked at a local branch for a check to my brother that would be absolutely guaranteed to clear immediately, and they said “you want a cashier’s check”. So I got a cashier’s check and Fedexed it to him, and I was very surprised when he called a week later and said they had held it for a week before crediting his account. The entire point was to send a cash equivalent. Which bank was incompetent?
Did you watch that episode on NBC last week? How they set up these guys in Britain? Classic.
You said — “So I got a cashier’s check and Fedexed it to him, and I was very surprised when he called a week later and said they had held it for a week before crediting his account. The entire point was to send a cash equivalent. Which bank was incompetent?”
Well, yes, a cashier’s check is supposed to be “as good as cash” — but it’s actually not, because of fraud. So, the issuing bank is going to give you their “best instrument” — but the receiving bank is going to apply certain policies on the basis of potential fraud. That’s the way it is.
Here’s an odd one for you. I’ve transferred money from one bank to another by means of a cashier’s check, issued by my one bank, to me — and then deposit it in my other bank. I thought that it would clear faster that way, being a cashier’s check.
Now, the depositing bank (which is Bank of America) will “credit” my account right now (immediately to the minute) when it is deposited but won’t “post it” until after midnight of the present business day, except if it’s on a Friday, for which they won’t post it until the next Tuesday (AM). I still get use of it, in the meantime, though (even over that weekend).
But, I asked them, one time, how I can get it “posted” *now* and not just “deposited” now. They said if it was cash, they could do it. So, the teller offered to cash the cashier’s check and then deposit the cash. Then it would be “posted” immediately (as cash) — even though they were cashing “across the counter” that very same cashier’s check.
And, by the way, I never did see the cash, so they “cashed it” — by means of just writing something different on the paperwork. Otherwise, it was the exact same thing as if I had deposited the cashier’s checked (and in that case, it would not have “posted” until the following Tuesday).
Who knows what they’re doing...
Regards,
Star Traveler
P.S. — I always wonder if one of these days I’m going to go to the bank or ATM or the online banking and find out that they’ve shut down for one reason or another. Maybe there’s a war that just happened that morning and everyone’s bank account is frozen, all of a sudden for a few days. Perhaps I should start socking money under the mattress...
We’ve got to stop this scam- it’s cutting into my greenhouse gas credits sales.
I knew that you could.
You said — Can you say “electronic transfer”?
It works well for individuals to businesses but it’s not something that you’ll find individuals do with other individuals — like if someone is selling a computer or car or boat in an ad and someone else wants to buy it. The process doesn’t work reliably and well enough for people to do it.
I can think of one electronic transfer that people do a lot of, and that’s through sales of items on eBay. And even there, people are getting “taken” all the time, through their electronic transfers of funds and losing merchandise (if they’re selling) or never getting product (if they’re buying).
There is no more reliable method than simply *cash* and preferably a transaction done at the bank, where they give you the cash from someone who is cashing their own check. You eliminate all fraud that way. I don’t know of another way to eliminate fraud, to the point where you insure that a transaction doesn’t “come back” on you.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Last August, in San Francisco, a victim of this sort of scam actually got arrested (and Bank of America got a nice batch of negative publicity). All he was trying to do was have the bank cash the $2000 check if it was valid. But B of A called the cops when they discovered it wasn't (by calling the business it was drawn on, after noticing the account had been flagged to watch for fraud).
Good thing I didn’t try to deposit it in the local bank branch here. I would hate to have been frog-marched out of there in handcuffs.
I tried selling a car once on cars.com and had the same thing happen - this guy in UAE claimed he was sending a check - I said “OK” knowing about the scam (and with no intention of transferring title to this guy unless the check happened to be legit, which I knew it wouldn’t) so I could get something to turn the bastard in on, but the check never came.
Some of them will go get a legit $5 money order, use chemicals to “erase” the ink, and then “write in” a new amount - making them look pretty damn authentic.
My fave has got to be the [African] cosmonaut stranded on a secret Soviet space station, and his family really needs to get to the salary that's being held until the cosmonaut gets back...
Unfortunately, there is no one to turn them into.
I had one this past fall from a guy who passed himself off as a Rev. in Alabama.
He wanted me to send him products on a stolen credit card number.
I called the RCMP and the local cops, but neither were interested.
I’m working with another one now who, “Praise the Lord”, wants the same thing.
He said he hopes we take credit cards.
I’m thinking of sending him an e mail back telling him......
Praise Allah, we do not take credit...send cash!
Escrow?
You asked — “Escrow?”
Well, that would make sense, if everything else was equal. In fact, I thought so, myself — at first.
But, apparently, all else isn’t equal. It seems that Escrow companies (in general, for online sales) have got a real bad name out there. You’ll find a lot of sellers refusing to have anything to do with Escrow companies because of a lot of fraud in that sector. Mind you, this is just from what I read from others and their experiences. And so, it makes me awfully wary.
There’s just way too much fraud out there — individual to individual — for online sales of things. By this I mean pay online and receive the product by shipping. I have shopped online for a used computer, but only for the contact information. I’ve then gone and looked at it, to make sure it’s as advertised and nothing else was wrong with it. Then I simply paid in cash. And everything was fine.
There is one area where you can minimize that kind of fraud, online and individual to individual (at least that I’ve found out about). That’s through Amazon sales (the individual sellers on Amazon, that is). Amazon will back it up 100% if something does not get delivered or it’s not as advertised.
Even with eBay they won’t do that (no matter what it may appear that they do). You just have to read very carefully the “fine print” with them. And..., there’s massive fraud on eBay. While a lot of people do okay with eBay, it doesn’t take too much fraud to make your chances really bad for buying stuff over a period of time. On top of that, with eBay, there’s big-time problems with PayPal, one of the primary paying mechanisms with eBay. In combination, eBay and PayPal is a nightmare for people (again, over a period of time — you’re going to get bitten).
I just don’t see the online sales (individual to individual) as — at all — practical for people. Business to individual is quite another story and it’s basically good, as long as you follow up with doing some initial research on the company you’re going to do business with.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Rosie O? Sarg, you are out of control and just about to drive people over the edge. LOL
You said — “Last August, in San Francisco, a victim of this sort of scam actually got arrested (and Bank of America got a nice batch of negative publicity). All he was trying to do was have the bank cash the $2000 check if it was valid. But B of A called the cops when they discovered it wasn’t (by calling the business it was drawn on, after noticing the account had been flagged to watch for fraud).”
And this is *exactly why* nobody should be doing business online — individual to individual. I wouldn’t do it — never — absolutely never.
That’s not to say that one cannot do business as an individual buying from an established business online. One can check that out beforehand. A business will have a reputation. If it hasn’t been in business long enough, then don’t do business with them.
But never do business with an individual or even with a “business” giving you money for something. You’ll run into this sort of problem, for sure...
Regards,
Star Traveler
P.S. — One can do business individual to individual as long as you’re only getting contact information online and you go see the product yourself and examine it first and then decide to buy it. Or, if you’re selling, you have the person and you meet and then they give you cash. I would even be wary of the cash, until I went to the bank with it. That’s how bad the fraud is, out there in the marketplace. It’s not like walking into a grocery store and buying groceries...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.