Earlier this month my son answered a job ad for a personal assistant. Recently he started receiving texts from Dr. X, provided our address, and a check for $1950 was sent by his “financial officer” from another state. The check is for my son’s “payment and business errands”
This evening Dr. X started texting my son asking if he received the check. His finance officer notified him that the check arrived. When he said yes the check was received, Dr. X asked about depositing the check. My son said which bank he uses (no other information) and Dr. X said he should deposit the check using his mobile app and send him the receipt for the deposit. This last exchange happened fairly rapidly.
I looked up the routing number on the check and it checked out. The address on the check checked out too but it’s a dumpy-looking flower shop in Texas.
This whole think stank so my son hasn’t done anything.
What is the next move in this scam? If my son deposited the check what would happen then?
Often fake check scams and run in tandem with job-search scams. You’ll hear that you’ve been “hired” and instructed to deposit a check in your bank account, then withdraw most of the money and wire it to someone else. Victims are told to keep several hundred dollars of the money as payment. When the checks are later discovered to be phony, the banks reverse the deposit and the victims are left liable for the money withdrawn, usually several thousand dollars.
Even if you’re not asked to forward on part of the funds, unexpected checks can still be scams. For example, you might be liable for the amount of the counterfeit check, your endorsement might give your account information to fraudsters, or you could receive follow-up attempts to phish for personal financial information — or some combination.
Tell the scammer your son has recently come into funds of $100M as part of a mining deal in Nigeria but needs Dr X’s help to get the funds released from escrow.
Beware of follow-on scams. In engaging with these scammers, the victim typically shares information of a sensitive nature with them which they may try to use in another scam. Be on your guard for a phone call claiming to be from your bank, saying there is a problem and they need you to move your money to a safe account; this also is a scam. Be suspicious of anything like this.
A variant of this directs the victim to use the fake funds to buy a laptop, phone, office equipment, etc from the scammer’s accomplice. By the time the check is found to be fraudulent, the victim’s money is long gone.
While this is probably the case, there are ‘legitmate’ * (notice the asterisk) times where you may receive funds, get to keep a percentage, & forward the rest.
-* In the cases were you really do get to keep some of the money, you are a money laundering mule. So it’s 'legitimate; in the sense that you’re not being scammed; you’re just becoming a criminal. IOW, if you’re not losing money in an outright scam you’re likely to get arrested. Either way is not a good outcome so don’t cash that check.
Why would the “financial officer” send the check to the son who is supposedly the personal assistant? Why wouldn’t the financial officer just deposit the check themselves?
Because that’s what personal assistants do; cash checks; get dry cleaning, etc.
I mean, surely the ‘financial officer’ wants the new personal assistant to deposit it to the financial officer’s account or the business’ account, & not the personal assistant’s own personal account, only to then write another check that needs to be deposited somewhere else. Right? Right?
In the UK, we have had the opposite problem. Students (always short of cash) are offered a cash sum to deposit in their bank accounts. They then write a cheque or do a bank transfer for 80/90% of the amount, keeping the rest. A common reason is that the owner of the cash is bankrupt and is avoiding their creditors.
The initial amount is modest, £100 or so, and the student is happy with £20 for a few minutes work. The follow-up is for a larger amount, maybe £500 and the reward smaller. If the student objects they are warned that they have already committed a crime.
They are, of course, laundering money, usually drug money and once caught in the web of deceit they may find it difficult to get out.
It’s a variation of the eBay scam from around 2000 or earlier. Someone buys something from you (let’s say, your old laptop) on eBay, then “accidentally” sends a cahier’s cheque for a lot more than the sales amount. “If you don’t want to wait for me to get the cheque back and send a replacement, just deposit it and send me a money order for the difference.”
Of course, the cheque initially deposits, then later bounces. The seller is out the laptop and the difference.
I read about some scheme like this back then - the person asked the bank several times when depositing the cheque (IIRC, a faked cashier’s cheque, which should be like cash if real) if it was valid, and was essentially assured by the bank there was no way it was fake, no way the transaction would be reversed. When they reversed the deposit, he sued the bank - and won.
I will point out that although this does smell like a scam and walk like a scam, until and unless they ask for some of the funds back, it might not be a scam.
You could take the check to your bank, tell them the story, and ask what to do. If they say “It’s good, deposit it!” then fine.
I am a expert on bank fraud, and yes this smells, but listen to the actual bankers advice.
Likely they will say it is a scam, but they have the info we don’t.
