I got burned for the first time at an art show. A woman bought $300 worth of jewelry from me and paid for it with two checks written on a closed account. It was a business account. It appears to have been signed with a fake name, as I can’t find evidence of a person with that name existing. (I didn’t get a driver’s license number from her :smack: although that probably would have been fake, too.)
So, I’ve called the business that the check was from and talked to a woman who seemed very flustered by my call (and, when I asked for her name, gave me one that was not the name on the check.)
I’ve filed a police report and notified the organizer of the show in hopes that he might pass the word along in case other artists took checks from this person (so that they can file reports, too.)
I’m going to send a letter to the business with copies of the checks.
Is there something else I could or should be doing here? Should I call the bank that was the holder of the closed account? (I’m in Ohio, if that makes any difference.)
Why would you do that? They clearly know the account is no good, as they properly refused to honor the checks, and they would have no knowledge or control over where the old checks for the account are.
Was the check made payable to you or was it a check that the purchaser signed over to you? Since you mentioned that she gave you two checks, was it something like she claimed those were her two previous paychecks and she signed them over to you?
What I am trying to determine here is whether you were a holder in due course.
I don’t know about Ohio, but the DA’s office handled that sort of thing in Oklahoma so you might want to give your local office a call. The person who took the check has to go in and file the complaint, but you have to be able to physically identify the check writer. They always asked if we could anyway - not that we ever had to.
If the OP can clarify, when you called the company did they confirm or deny the person who wrote the check works for the company? Was it a company check with just the company name on it? Did it have anyone else’s name on it?
I guess $300 isn’t much to the cops. I’ve had people steal money from where I work and it’s a lot more than that and the cops don’t care much. They’re like “fill out a report and if we happen to pick him up we’ll let you know.” Kind of like, “we have no intention of getting him, unless we pick him up for something else and run a check and that shows up.” (I’m in Chicago)
Call your local prosecutor’s office. You can file a private complaint for Passing Bad Checks, and they have investigators who can help in tracking down the perp.
When I worked in a prosecutor’s office (25+ years ago) writing cold checks for anything over $100 was a felony, in Kentucky. I don’t know if the laws are still the same, or are the same in Ohio. But do go to the county attorney or district attorney and ask to fill out a complaint. The charge is (or was) Theft by Unlawful Taking.
Thirding or whatever calling the police/prosecutor’s office. If she wrote one bad check on the account, there are likely others, and law enforcement may well be interested. As may the business the checks belonged to. The person you spoke to was likely not in a position of authority, but the owner or office manager may very well want to know what’s going on, especially if the person with the checkbook was not supposed to have access to it at all, and possibly still works there.
Thanks, all, for the info. To clarify, the checks were company checks with just the company’s name, address, and phone on it. I ended up with two checks because I gave her a total for two bracelets when she actually wanted three. She wrote the second check for the third bracelet.
The person who answered the phone when I called neither confirmed nor denied the check writer had any affiliation with the company. (That was one of the things I thought was odd.) I asked her for her name (before I told her the name of the person who had signed the checks), and it was a different name.
Yeah, I figure $300 is very small potatoes to the cops. That’s why I sent the info along to the show organizer. I thought if others also reported bad checks from the same account, that might garner some attention.
It’s curious that the person you talked to at the business wasn’t more concerned about someone passing checks with the business’s name on them.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the woman you talked to was the same woman who bought the bracelets. It could have gone down like this: The business closes the account and tells her to destroy all the old checks. Instead of doing that, she decides to pass them, at places (like art shows) where the usual safeguards aren’t in place.
This very thought occurred to me. Unfortunately, the business (as was the show) is about 100 miles from me, which makes showing up in person a bit complicated.
Hmmm. I had done that, but I just did it again and noted that the phone number listed in all the directory pages (they don’t have a web site) is different than the number on the check. The plot thickens. I will try calling the other number on Monday. The plot thickens…
“[business name] got me for 13K for a new monument sign. Her real name is Daryl Beth Cherney aka Dina Cherney, which I am sure is by now somthing different. She also goes by the hat lady or red hat lady! Seems she has done this before. Gets your deposit, goes on vacation to Israel, declares backrupcy then does it all over!
Buyer beware with this Lady!”
Yep, that’s her. I found that Facebook page yesterday, and put in a friend request to her, but if she recognizes my name, she may not accept the request.
I asked a lawyer friend what my next steps should be and he gave me some advice. I’m going to make one more attempt to contact her by phone, and if that goes nowhere, I’m moving forward with criminal or civil prosecution, depending on what the police decide to do.
Make sure you take some screen shots of her FB page in case she takes it down. You might also contact the venue where your show was and see if they have security cameras. If they’ve got her on film you can prove she was actually at the event in case she denys it. Good luck.
