Consider a lot of these scams are perpetrated by organized crime like the Russian Mafia, it’s definitely safer not to try to play them.
Make her read this article from the New Yorker, about someone who should have known better about these scammers and how he got taken to the cleaners, and then sent to jail. It also explains how a cleared check can be collected upon once the fraudulent nature of the check is recognized.
Banks have also, from time to time, had their loyal customers arrested for trying to deposit or cash fraudulent checks, as the Matthew Shinnick matter a couple of years ago showed. He was suspicious enough to ask the bank to verify that the check was covered, which they did, then had him arrested anyway.
The lady in this case – who sounds, alas, like a born mark – may be making herself a party to a crime, which could screw up her life way more than having a bank account cleaned out. (Though that would, of course, also suck.)
Let me guess - all of her financial problems are someone else’s fault, right? She sounds like a real peach, just falling from one disaster to the next.
I have two money orders from Nigerian scammers. I was really surprised when they arrived, especially as they’re made out to my dog, Clover. They are amazingly authentic in appearance.
But I did not deposit them.
Of course not, but did your dog?
And rightly so. This man agreed to help two different thieves in a row, both supposedly intending to steal public money from a poor country. He agreed to fund forgery and corruption. He actively organized a tax-evasion scheme. He even lied about having cancer.
It’s possible that some of these “Nigerian scams” propose an honest-looking deal. But every one I received and took the time to read were requesting my involvement in a nefarious plan, generally embezzlement organized by an unsavoury character. One of them even claimed to be a war criminal and former torturer (and a thief too, of course). As a result, my sympathy for the so-called “victims” is rather low. Actually, I generally rejoice when I read such stories. It’s certainly the case here, where we see a would-be liar, thief, embezzler, forger, tax-cheater who professes high Christian morals in his every day and professional life ending up being cleaned of his money and ending up in jail, as he should.
I see no victim here. Only a criminal outsmarting another (worst) criminal. Good news.
Yes, you’re correct. On re-reading the OP, I realize I assumed that the co-worker wasn’t going to cooperate with the scam. I thought she was just depositing the $3,500 check and saying ‘I’m not sending them and money but I’ll deposit this on the off chance it works.’
I guess I assumed she couldn’t be that dumb. Which is unfair of me since I almost fell for one of these things myself about four years ago. If it’s any credit to me, though, I was trying to sell a mattress on Craigslist, not expecting thousands of dollars from some random foreigner who contacted me by email. Ah well. Live and learn, for some of us. 
I sound like an echo, but of course it’s a scam.
The check may have an account number that matches the name of this company in Florida but the company in Florida did not issue that check.
Someone tried to use our company bank account in a forged check scam. We were alerted when a few people that didn’t quite have enough sense to just throw the check away at least thought to look up our phone number and call us.
As soon as we started getting calls asking us if we were running a lottery we knew something was up. Our bank caught on before any checks were honored
so our account was not debited but it was still a pain in the butt…and we were lucky.
Your friend needs to realize that this is not a victimless crime and the attitude of “let me try it and see what happens” is putting someone else at risk…the hijacked account may belong to a small business whose owners could be financially destroyed by this scam and their employees could be out-of-work if this drives the company under. She should really make an effort to find this company and call them and let them know what is going on.
Some years back my sister-in-law was offered $2000 for her beat up Camry by a “UN employee” who was out of the country. He offered to send her a Money Order for $7000, and asked her to send the rest back to him (he’d already had the money order for another car purchase that fell through. Poor guy.) and his agent would be along to collect the car.
I told her it was a scam.
She deposited the check anyways, “just in case”. Fortunately, she wasn’t dumb enough to actually touch the money, and it disappeared about a week later. Apparently the bank it was written on was real, but they don’t issued Money Orders.
One born every minute.
I have a good friend who fell for a scam like this when she was unemployed for 7 months. Of course, she didn’t tell us until afterward, so we weren’t able to warn her ahead of time. The check cleared the bank, the funds were deposited into her account, she wired the 90%, and then found out that the check ended up being no good after all. So she was out around $3K, which she could ill afford even at the best of times.
Originally Posted by Savannah
I have two money orders from Nigerian scammers. I was really surprised when they arrived, especially as they’re made out to my dog, Clover. They are amazingly authentic in appearance.
But I did not deposit them.
Naw. I wouldn’t let her use the car to get to the bank. Not after the last time I let her drive.
Well, I sent her excerpts from this thread as well as the two links and she read the info. Then said “those are different (meaning the cases in the links). My bank said that they’ll put a hold on the money until August 19th and if it’s good, then it’s mine”. :rolleyes:
I wonder how much it costs them to mail one of these to you? Probably a couple bucks but aren’t they extremely poor there anyway?
Is it worth it to annoy them by telling them to send me these money orders and I just toss them in the trash?
You tried. Harder than I would have.
And if she does deposit them, every year she spends in Federal prison will count as seven.
I’ll bet the bank is holding it because of her, not because of any “policy”. After all, they must know the likelihood of being able to get any money out of her if it turns out to be a scam.
I’ve always wondered who in the hell falls for this crap. Now I know.
It saddens me. I really thought, when the internet started gaining popularity in the mid-90s, that the sheer volume of bullshit, hoaxes, scam artistry, etc., on it would raise the average person’s level of skepticism a notch or two. After getting fooled by one too many “Microsoft is giving out free money” chain emails, or lie-filled political glurge, or 419 scams, one would have thought the populace as a whole would have fine-tuned their bullshit detectors a little bit, no? I guess I’m just not cynical enough.
Maybe it’s people just bright enough to think that they’re too bright to fall for scams (but not bright enough to actually not fall for scams). Like my bother-in-law who, instead of checking glurge for himself after I sent him Snopes links, got mad at me for sending him Snopes links. You can’t help people who won’t help themselves.
There’s zero chance any of it is real. It’s all lies and there is no money. She’s gonna get capital-F FUUUUUCKED.