My friend has apparently fallen for a rental scam- classic scenario: out of state landlord, will send keys once payment received, bad grammar on communications, etc. So she deposited a cashier’s check at branch of Scammer’s bank, using name and account number provided by scammer. Waited for keys, haven’t received them yet of course, and getting the runaround.
So my friend calls me and wonders what to do. What strikes me as different is the depositing of funds into an existing bank account. Isn’t that trackable/reversible in a way that mailing a cashiers check wouldn’t be? (And why wouldn’t scammer just have her send the money, instead of bank deposit?) Does that provide my friend with any possibly course of action, or is she still screwed anyway?
Ok, she’s going to the police- she didn’t believe it was a scam still, and I told her one way she’ll be sure it’s a scam is that they will be asking for more money- and sure enough, now they are telling her there’s a fedex declaration fee and buildings maintenance fee, and instructed her to send that by a more sketchy 7-11 prepaid card-- is it possible the initial deposit to an established American bank account was to get her trust so they can get the “small” fees in a non traceable way? Any chance she’ll get her much larger initial deposit she made to a bank account back?
Is the account still open? Is the bank willing to tell you the name and address on the account?
By all means talk to the police, but I don’t think the bank is going to give you back the money. I assume your friend doesn’t have a signed lease or agreement or anything like that.
My guess is that your friend is 100% in the right, and will wind up screwed anyway.
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Is the account still open? Is the bank willing to tell you the name and address on the account?
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The scammer provided first and last name, bank name, and account number- My friend went to a local branch and deposted cashiers check to that account. If the police verify the scam, is there no recourse on the initial deposit? I can’t figure out how that initial deposit is part of the scam- it seems the scammer isn’t in Amercia (they asked for the new “fees” to be loaded on a prepaid card, and then the card’s pin emailed to them). Maybe its an account they’ve hacked?
But, if you’ve made a deposit to a provided American bank account, in a transaction that has been verified by police as fraudulent, is typically no further action made to reverse the transaction? (specifically the bank account transaction, obviously if she went further and send the prepaid cards, that’s a lot more anonymous and untraceable and not recoverable)
If the scammer has already removed the money from the account then where is this money to reverse the transaction going to come from? The bank isn’t going to cover your friend giving money to a scammer out of the goodness of their heart.
What Telemark says, unfortunately. Perhaps the account is no longer open, and that’s why they want prepaid 7-11 cards.
IIUC, the bank transaction wasn’t fraudulent - it was a real cashier’s check and I expect the money really got transferred to the fraudsters. The crime comes in because they didn’t deliver the keys to the alleged rental apartment (which likely doesn’t exist, or doesn’t belong to them). If and when the police catch these folks, your friend could theoretically sue them and get her money back, but good luck with that.
The bank will only care if the bank is out money. The fact that your friend said, in effect, “Here is some money - put it into the account for Ricky Ripoff, Inc.” and Ricky really owns the account, then your friend is SOL once Ricky takes the money out. The bank isn’t liable, IOW.
Your friend sounds more than a little naive - hasn’t she ever rented an apartment before? Especially one she’s never seen, and from someone she never met?
Give her my condolences, but I have a feeling that’s all she will ever get.
No, but it seems like it’s not that simple if it happened to be that the bank account that my friend deposited the funds to was a normal account that was hacked.
First, most banks would “owe” the hacked account the stolen funds, just as they would any account that had funds stolen fraudulently. (maybe some banks don’t, but I’ve been hacked before, and while it was a process, I got the money returned.)
Then, that account would be required to return those recovered funds, since they were deposited fraudulently.
I’m not saying it’ll go down like that. I’m sure most likely there would be some catch to keep it from reaching that resolution, and even if it does it would probably be a months long process pulling teeth to sort it out, but– that’s a path that logically results with my friend getting her money back without requiring any party’s benevolence outside of standard procedure.
*edit: if it can be verified by police record, that someone was directed to deposit money via a fraudulent scheme, into an unknowing account- and the money was still in that account when fraud was discovered, I’m assuming there’s recourse to have money returned. If that’s wrong, then I agree, tough luck
It may be that the bank account belongs to somebody who answered one of those “work from home” ads. IOW they’re in effect a mule.
They’re told by the bad guys: “Here’s the deal. Folks will deposit money in your account at our direction. We’ll tell you the money’s coming. When it does, buy a cashiers check with it made out to us here in Bulgaria and mail it to us. Or better yet do an electronic transfer to our bank in Slobovia. Less $100 for your trouble. What could be easier?”
So the mule may in fact do several good transactions and make a little money themselves before some would-be renter complains to the cops or puts a stop order on the cashier’s check they’re depositing.
Once stuff goes wrong, the mule is burned and may be on the hook to their bank for any cashiers checks or funds transfers they bought with what later proved to be bad funds.
This happens all the time all over the country every day. Two (semi-)honest people are screwed and the scamsters laugh all the way to their offshore private bank.
Yeah, the account is very unlikely to have been hacked. The mule idea mentioned above seems like a plausible scenario, or IMO it’s just a straw account set up (perhaps with stolen documents) and there’s no one to go after. Unless you can demonstrate that the bank did something illegal or are otherwise at fault I can’t see them offering up funds.
In the most likely scenarios, the bank didn’t do anything wrong and your friend has learned a painful and costly lesson.
How? Having the throw-away account closed somehow magically prevents the scammer from opening another with another set of fake credentials (at approximately $100 per set) or hooking up with another clueless money mule?
Nothing but actual arrest will stop the scammer. And that’s pretty hard. It happens, but only in fairly large cases (like, netting millions of dollars).
Closing the barn door after the horses have left, never to return. I think there’s an old cliche about that.
I work in this field, I have “CAMs” after my name. Yes- it will help. It might even get them their money back. It’s harder and harder to open these sorts of accounts, and the background search is such that fake credentials wont pass muster.