I used to reply to her occassional e-mails with a copy of the information from Snopes, but have had to switch over to just sending her the links. When she turned around in her cube to tell me last week that she got what amounts to a 419 email in her work inbox, I jokingly said that she should reply to it. She put her foot down and said “no, it’s just a scam”. I agreed and went back to work.
She was off yesterday and when I arrived at work this morning, she swiveled her chair around and we talked about our weekends. Then she said that she got off the phone with the bank right before I got in and that the check would take two weeks to verify.
“Umm, the what?” I asked.
“Oh, the check,” she casually continued “the one from that email last week. They sent me a check to my house for $3500.00 and I’m supposed to wire 90% to some country in Africa once it clears.”
“…” I replied.
“What?!? I called the bank and they said that the routing number and bank matched to the Wachovia name on the check from the Florida company. They just didn’t want to mess with the exchange rates and want me to wire the money over there.” She seemed a bit putoff by having to explain these simple actions.
“So, you get to keep $350?”
“Yup,” she boasted “I figure that if the check doesn’t clear, I’m not out anything.”
She sent me a copy of the email correspondence where she wrote “The bank will not release the money to me in cash until the 19th. Since this is the first transaction I needed this to be verified to protect myself. There is a lot of scams circulating right now.” To which the other person responded " Thanks for the email. I understand your plight and i want you to take your time. Just keep me posted."
So, any bets on how this is going to end? Mine is on tears. Also, is there anything I can do to help mitigate the damages that have already been done (although, this may just fall on deaf ears).
Oh, you must keep us updated on this one. I know a lot of stupids, but I don’t think any of the people I know are stupid enough to fall for one of those 419 scams…dying to hear the story unfold.
Wait a minute. . . how does she know this doesn’t constitute “laundering”? Granted, if she gets to keep the check, that’s all good and dandy until the Feds come-a-knockin’.
Or, as ivylass says, the other dude drains her account.
Tripler
Been there, done that, all with a Soviet nuke.
She does know that once the bank “clears” the check it’s still not “cleared” right?
I’ve heard that a bank can clear a check and make the money available to you but still come back months later to say the check was bad and that you owe them the money.
I’m not sure how this works. Are you saying the scammer would get her account information after the check clears and can withdraw the co-worker’s money using that information?
You deposit the check. The numbers look legit, so the bank clears it. You wire the 90% to the scammer – in this case, that’s $3150 – and then the bank gets notice from the bank the check was supposedly issued by stating that the account is closed/not legitimate/otherwise has no funds available to cover the $3500. Your bank then takes the $3500 back out of your account and the scammer still has the $3150 that you sent them. Unless you have a much better life than I, and $3K is chump change to you, your account is pretty well cleaned out.
As funny as this might seem, this woman might be about to lose her life savings. The top priority should be to prevent her, dumb as she may be, from possibly having her life ruined.
Out of curiousity, is it then ever safe to assume that a check that has “cleared” in a bank account?
Actually, not really. Her bank account is usually quite empty and her house is in foreclosure as she refinanced it out of her ability to pay it so she could take the equity to buy a Harley Davidson. She’s making payments on the Harley still but gave up on the house in February.
It’s frustrating to watch as she’s older than I am and I have tried numerous times in the last ten years to talk her out of getting into these situations to no avail.
As I understand it the scammer is long gone with the wired money by the time the bank figures out the check is not valid.
However it is important to make sure you know who you are sending checks to as well. Go on your bank’s online access (if you have it) and look up a check you have written recently. By sending you a $5 check no questions asked I can get your bank name, your account number, a copy of your signature or if cashed at a retailer I could potentially get your drivers license number, home phone number, SS number and again a copy of your signature.
Checks are great tools to scam people with 419 scam or not. IMHO this lady needs to close her account and report the whole thing to the bank and the police (FBI?). Even if she does not wire the money the crooks could still access her account through creative data mining.
All sound posts. Having no $$$ isn’t going to stop the situation, as she’ll temporarily have 3500 soon-to-be-revoked dollars to sent the scammers. I’m surprised the bank didn’t say anything about it. (On Hampshire’s note, here’s a relevent link on cheque “clearing”.)
If the bank is holding the funds for two weeks, it’s very unlikely that it will release the money into her account. Two weeks is ample time for the bank to send the check to the issuing bank and get it back.
Even in the unlikely event that the check really has cleared, I’d guess the next step would be for the scammers to do it with a bigger check that the now confident victim will forward without waiting. 419 scams are usually a lot bigger than this.
If it were me, and it had gone this far, I’d clean everything but the money from the spammers out of the account, wait for it to really clear, and if it does, write to them “so long, suckers.” And post all the amusing mail I’d get.
I find it interesting that a number of public service announcements about this and similar scams include language along the lines of: “Once you send them a check you’ll never hear from them again.” I realize the PSA producers only have 30 or 60 seconds to get their point across, but isn’t the reality that once someone has demonstrated their suckerdom, they very likely will hear from the scammers again (as you describe) with an even larger offer and promises of greater reward that will be sent very soon once these additional minor fees are received…