I manage a short-term rental property that we own. All marketing and collections are handled by another company but we are the ones always in contact with our guests.
A few days ago I received an email from somebody wishing to make a reservation, for which he would have to pay a booking fee. Unlike every other guest we ever had this one says he can’t pay by credit card but would send us a cheque. I reply to him that until the cheque has been cleared by the bank (or rather our collection/marketing company’s bank) we will continue to offer the apartment during those days. If we receive another booking fee for those days while the cheque is in transit we will return the cheque to him at his expense. We also encouraged him to pay by CC to make life easier for both of us.
The guy says that he is American, that he is not coming personally but his company is seeking accommodation for “two models”. The thing is that his English is atrocious. No, scratch that, it is more than atrocious. I can barely understand what he is saying, only that he keeps mentioning that they are models (I don’t care about that).
Today I got this email from him. And if any of you speak gibberish, and would be so nice to translate to English -or Spanish if you can - I would really appreciate it. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions but Mr. Duncan here doesn’t sound American and his proposal sounds a little “dodgy” to say the least.
He’s going to send you a forged cheque for more than the amount due. You’re going to send him the “change”. The cheque is going to bounce, he’s going to dissapear with the “overage” you sent him, and you’re liable for the full amount of the cheque.
The trick is not simply that the check will bounce. Under the banking laws, when you deposit a certified or cashier’s check, the bank must credit your account the next business day. However, with a scam check, it takes several days at least for a forged cashier’s to be rejected by the bank it is supposedly drawn on. At that point, your account will be debited for the amount of the fraudulent check.
The scam is that you deposit the check for the excess amount, and once the cashier’s check supposedly clears, you pay them the overage. When the forged check bounces, you’re debited for the full amount.
See Larry Mudd’s Post #19 in this thread for a discussion of a similar scam – the con “artist” even attempted to pose as a “too good to be true” fashion model.
It is absolutely a scam. Don’t even try to check if it’s real. (On preview, ignore what kunilou suggests.) I’ve heard stories of people told to be suspicious going to their bank and asking “This is cleared? It’s absolutely fine? The money is here? There’s no possible problem?” and hear yes, fine, yep, teriffic, and then be surprised when the cheque turns out to be fake/forged weeks or months later and they’re out however many thousand.
Frame it and rejoice that you were invited to be part of an international fraud scheme, and ignore the schmuck.
It’s a scam. We’re starting to get them in response to our rental ads. I’m actually beginning to have fun answering the emails.
One fellow this morning, sent three stupid enquiries, and a complicated way he’d pay for the rental accomodation, ending up with a suggestion that we send “excess funds to my daughter’s travel agency in africa so he can pay for return ticket”.
His English is laughable (“Thanks for your humble unity…” - where do people come up with this crap?) and absolutely not American. Any American over five years old could immediately detect that this is not how Americans speak or write.
The fellow’s not too bright either. It doesn’t take much study to find that the American spelling of “favour” is “favor.”
Congratulations on your sense of fairness. In this case, even more congratulations on your sense of suspicion - dead right on both counts.
Heck, I am not American and I knew he didn’t sound American – or from any other English-speaking country for that matter – but after having been indoctrinated for years in the Holy Church of Customer Service I cannot bring myself to making fun of a (potential) customer, at least not in public. And even though my Bulshit Sensor [sup]TM[/sup] was beeping loudly since the initial contact, I was willing to cut the guy some slack; after all I am but an honorary member of the Grammar Gestapo (English is my second language).
Anyways, even before I got the first reply here I decided it was just too weird and I don’t need the money that much. This is my last email to him:
Notice that if there is a remote possibility that the guy is legit I still managed not to insult him, which is really what I would have liked to do.
Watch out for the same deal with this. I’ve heard of them using stolen credit card numbers over the phone, transaction goes through, victim ships product to Nigeria, bank calls and says “oops, sorry, transaction was done on a stolen card” and victim is now out his product.
I bet his next move is to ask you to put more $$ on the credit card than the actual cost of the rental and have you return the excess to god-knows-who; or the card is fake or stolen and somehow he’ll get his money back while you, the merchant, get screwed somehow.
Nobody who write like that yet claims to be American is telling the truth.
The problem is, and the reason these scams can be successful, is that even after a cheque (or international money order or whatever) has cleared, it can still subsequently be identified as fraudulent, and the payee held liable for the amount credited.
- I would really appreciate it. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions but Mr. Duncan here doesn’t sound American and his proposal sounds a little “dodgy” to say the least.
