Reminds me of an incident a couple of jobs ago. Someone spammed two departments with the “candy canes are shaped like Js for Jesus and red and white for his blood” glurge. I sent out an email with a link to the debunk and someone emailed back angry at me for spoiling a good story, and what do I care if people want to believe it? Then she started making comments about my lack of faith so I reported her to her and my supervisor and she got in trouble.
My family needs a supervisor. 
Let’s not be too hasty; she may indeed have the last laugh. I myself received, just last week, correspondence from an official of “UNITED NATION” informing me of my eligibility to receive compensation in the amount of US $500,000 due to my status as a victim of previous Internet fraud. I had only to contact a bank representative in Nigeria and provide my personal information, whereupon I would be wired the full payment within days.
Naturally I was skeptical—I am nobody’s fool, after all, and I can’t actually remember having lost money in an Internet scam, although if they have proof otherwise, who am I to refuse the money? What convinced me, ultimately, was that the author of the email was none other than former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
Fortune smiles upon me, my dear friends. After the money is wired, I plan to take an extended hiatus from the board in the near future to travel the world, but I will be with you in spirit, always.
I don’t suppose that you can go to her bank with her and talk to someone who knows something. Outline for them the nature of the check, why you think it is possibly fraudulent, and why you think your friend might get into trouble about this. In particular, according to your friend someone at her bank is telling her that after the check clears the money is hers and they won’t take it away from her. We all know, at least anecdotally, that this is not true. When the bank realizes the check is drawn from a fake account they will take the money back.
It seems like someone needs to get the bank official to admit that they have no problem taking the money that they “cleared” back from her account, if the check turns out to be illegitimate.
Putting themselves in the reach of American law? For $3,000? Not likely. Not that the check would ever clear anyway.
Sometimes the will to be stupid is just stronger than any other force you can bring to bear.
IMNSHO, it’s probably time to back away from this person. When the house of cards collapses she’ll be looking for people to save her, and having been involved to the degree you have been, she’ll be looking for help from you. If you can’t save her, take steps now to protect yourself.
Lucky for you that you’ll be able to post without paying. 
I got that one also. I’ve been getting a lot more lately. Maybe the Yahoo spam filters got sabotaged by Microsoft. The other new variant seems to be to try to convince you that they e-mailed you by accident, and that the scam is already well underway. I suppose those who think they can get something for nothing would leap at the opportunity to profit from this mistake.
Update: Her bank returned the check as “altered and ficticious” and has charged her a $5 fee for that. Against my advice, she’s emailing the sender a notice that she wants to be reimbursed for that money.
I’m sure they’ll put a cheque in the mail right smartly.
Any chance she’s going to learn from this in any way, shape or form?
I’d doubt it. If her own bank tells her, “This guy sent you a fake check”, and charges her money to underscore the point, and her response is to ask the crook to reimburse her the five bucks, this is someone who’s not in the same reality as the rest of us.
Hell no, but somedays it actually gives me motivation to come into the office just to hear the results of the latest shenanigans she’s gotten herself into.
Maybe some relative of a Nigerian Prince will offer to reimburse her…
On the bright side, stpauler, if you ever decide to embark on a side career in internet scamming you know where to start. 
I rarely agree with what banks do, but in this case, a $5 Stupid Charge sounds about right.
I’m guessing the Nigerians will ask for her bank info, so they can deposit the $5 directly.
Regards,
Shodan
Just tell her:
She’s not going to get it.
I kinda figured it would be another draft, this time for $3505, with sincere apologies and a request to wire 90% and of course, please keep the extra $5 for the inconvenience…
Jeez, couldn’t they make the Stupid Fee more painful? Say, $50?
Some people learn by watching others, and some just have to pee on the electric fence themselves.
It would be kind of awesome if they sent her another fake check for excatly $5. (Only to have that one bounce too, of course, in exactly the same manner. I’d love to see what she would do then. Email them again, asking for $10 to cover her fees? I wonder how long this could go on before she catches on.)
May 12, 2015
Dear Mr. Nigeria:
Well, it’s happened again. Your latest check to cover my accumulated penalty fees has been refused by the bank and I’m being hit with another five dollar charge. I’m starting to get tired of this.
Please send me a check for $1,065 to cover the 213 check failures. Thank you.
–Moron