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Check Cashing Scam (Nigerian Or Otherwise) Beware!
By Heather Carroll
After writing two previous articles regarding home-based business scams, I thought I
had done a pretty thorough job describing many of the scams that continue to plague those
looking to make a good living from the comfort of their home. However, after receiving a
troubling phone call from my sister-in-law, I realized that there was more work to be done.
She called and said that she wanted to run an opportunity by me that she had come
across because my brother had told her that I knew quite a bit about scams. What she
described to me was the classic check cashing scam that has robbed endless unsuspecting
people of millions of dollars.
Although I knew about this particular "opportunity", I chose not to include it in my
previous articles because I truly believed that most people knew about it. However, after
I told my sister-in-law to not only run in the other direction, but report what she had
received to the proper authorities.
She tried to convince me that it had to be legitimate. Her reasoning for believing it
to be legitimate was as follows: they had a very professional website, the checks that she
received in the mail looked very authentic, and they never asked for her bank account or
Social Security number.
With my sister-in-law being an intelligent, level headed individual, I knew that I
needed to write an article dedicated to this topic. If she believed it, how many others
were still falling for this scam? Let me explain how it worked for my sister-in-law. Keep
in mind that the techniques used to scam you will depend on the person that you are
dealing with, but the end result is always the same (you're out a whole lot of money).
My sister-in-law responded to two different job postings on Craigslist requesting that those
who would like to be paid a significant amount of money for only a few hours a week send a
request for information to an e-mail address. She did so and quickly received a response
from both "companies".
It was explained to her that they were looking for financial representatives to cash
checks that had been received from their customers. Unfortunately the foreign "companies"
were unable to cash the out of country payments because of some legal or financial reason.
My sister-in-law would need to take the checks to her bank, deposit them into her account,
and send 90 percent of the money to a foreign address.
For her very brief trouble, she would get to keep a 10 percent commission. Both companies
requested her name, address, and some other very general information. Neither asked for her
Social Security number or any bank account number, hence her proof that it must not be a scam!
It was at that point that both "companies" proceeded to send her checks (without her
consent I might add) with instructions on how to cash them and where to send the money.
One of the "companies" had sent her a very authentic looking check for $4000 from a Bank
in Canada while the other sent her $2500 in American Express travelers checks.
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