I don’t deal with Money Orders that often but I see the problem here being you put the bad MO in your bank, they credit your account, a few weeks later they find it’s a bad MO, they take the money back out of your account??
Is it possible to cash a MO at a bank that is not yours without giving any personal information?
Can people without bank accounts cash MOs? Is there a holding period for these folks?
Depends on the bank and their policy. Around here, in a small town, they will cash checks for non-account holders with reasonable ID and local addresses. Out of towners they never saw before would have a harder time.
Now that the scam is becoming more common, I hope they will verify a MO first, but maybe they have to get burned once.
In the Big City, I have run across policies that banks will only cash something drawn on them or for their account holders, no exceptions.
I seem to recall that outside of actual cash, USPS money orders are the most counterfeited form of money extant.
How about if you cash it at a not your bank/post office/grocery store and show ID- then later on it is found to be fake- do they have any recourse in coming after you for the money? I can see how your bank has you by the balls, but can Food Lion come after you weeks later and demand you pay?
When you sign your name on the back of the check, you are guaranteeing it to the entire world. It might pass through 100 hands after yours and when it’s found to be fraudulent, it comes bouncing right back to you. Mr 100 doesn’t even have to go through the intervening 99 parties if he doesn’t want to.
NEVER sign anything you’re not prepared to pay for.
If you co-sign for a loan because the buyer has some poor credit history, you are 100% responsible in the event of default.
If you co-sign a check for a friend because he doesn’t have a handy bank account, you are 100% responsible if it bounces.
Just to clarify. If you take a fraudulant USPS MO to the Post Office, will they cash it? Would they have the power to know immediately if it’s a fake or not?
I’ve heard that too, and it may be true, to some extent.
However, this scam is very common on craigslist, and there are several indications it is not being perpetrated by a particularly competent group.
I’ve only ever received emails like these when selling high ticket items: cars, computers, etc. So they’re targeted at specific posts. Yet several posters noted the use of “item” and “seller”. A less generic email would certainly rope more people in, and regardless of whether they’re hand-selecting the posts to attempt the scam on or using a computer to do so, a set of more specific emails would be easy to use.
Aw man, can’t we do a Dope Sting like that dude who shipped a fake laptop to a scammer who lived in the U.K.? You can pretend to accept his offer, and then ship, I dunno, a lump of coal? Surely we can find a Doper in the area who’d be willing to do surveillance 24/7 on the post office so that we could get a running commentary and pictures.
If you are the one whose trying to pass a bad MO (the one you got from the buyer), how are you not prosecuted for fraud when the bank finds out it’s a fraudulent MO?? Even though you didn’t know it’s a fraudulent MO the bank looks at you as the person trying to recieve the funds. Are you off the hook? I find it hard to believe you would be since the bank has no way of knowing if you printed out the MO on your printer at home or if you really got it from some seedy character (as in the OP). How come all these people getting scammed aren’t prosecuted for fraud? I would think they’d come down on you pretty hard if you tried to pass a fake $100 bill (even though you got it from someone else, but the bank doesn’t know this), why not a fake MO?
I think it would be funnier to send a laptop that is programmed to phone home when the scammer powers it up. Have it take pictures with a built-in camera, record sound, and capture keystrokes. All the while transmitting it back to the the owner.
As you said, you didn’t know. It lacks the elements of intent and knowledge. As a sample, here are the applicable laws in NY:
§ 170.30 Criminal possession of a forged instrument in the first degree
A person is guilty of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the first degree when, with knowledge that it is forged and with intent to defraud, deceive or injure another, he utters or possesses any forged instrument of a kind specified in > section 170.15.
§ 170.15 Forgery in the first degree
A person is guilty of forgery in the first degree when, with intent to defraud, deceive or injure another, he falsely makes, completes or alters a written instrument which is or purports to be, or which is calculated to become or to represent if completed:
My BS-ometer pegged right to ten when I read the post.
<anecdotally> Where do you get something like this? I’d imagine watermarks and security marques are hard to create…else there’d be a wizard in Office 2003 to make them. But it’s not like I see ads in the back of Magazines for Fill in the Blanks Postal Orders, in bulk…
Something like what? Stolen Postal Money Orders?
hmmm, good point.
Mine almost pegged just by reading thread title (if you have to ask. . .)
When I saw the words “money order”, it finished it’s trip to the peg. I actually checked the date on the OP figuring this was a zombie thread from 1999.
I also have a suspcion that this poster has been had. . .