I will try the money order company again today to make sure they are legit and try to get more info about where they were purchased. The biggest problem with being on hold for 20 minutes is that we have only 2 phone lines, and that’s a big chunk of time to have caught up in a non-essential phone call. But, I may try it again.
And yes, I do work for a property managment company. I can guarantee you that none of our tenants would randomly send $3800 to pay off an outstanding account. They would make damned sure we knew who it was. Besides, 99% never bother to pay up anyway. And John doesn’t remember doing business with anyone in Michigan or Connecticut lately. All of our landlords live in Indiana, California, Georgia, or Illinois - and they surely wouldn’t cough up that kind of dough without reference to a bill or bid.
I can’t imagine FedEx just giving out a customer’s contact information (that would sure piss ME off!). Besides, the guy I talked to agreed that it sounded fishy, and did say that the account the shipment was charged to was delinquent and being investigated regarding fraudulent charges. :dubious:
Thanks for your help and fabulous suggestions. I know this isn’t nearly as interesting as Auntie Em’s Workplace Saga, but we’ll see how this turns out.
My boss came in a few minutes ago and told me not to do any more research into the mystery money orders. Apparently, it was “cleared up” yesterday after I left. Now, I’ll never know …
He’s an extremely private person, and would get really pissed if I bugged him about it. I might try to casually bring it up in a couple of weeks, but not now, that’s for sure!
I tried putting some of our slow-moving rentals on Craigslist, and all I got were really odd replies with either a yahoo.com or yahoo.uk address, breezy chatty nature, and warning bells all over. Only one or two legit enquiries.
We got a long, chatty email about a condo for rent, that ended up mentioning they’d love to pay the entire term’s rent in advance–via a money order. They were from (cough) Nigeria, so wanted to arrange rental accomodation before arriving. (Yeah.) I replied politely but firmly, pointing out that if they were in fact, a student and 22, then the 55+ building they were applying for would not accept them. This was from a RentBC listing, not Craigslist, so the scammers are everywhere.
I second the idea that the money orders are counterfeit.
OK, I’ll play. I am probably an easy mark and all that, but I don’t get this scam re money orders (it may help if you all know that I’ve never even seen a money order in my life). How does anyone make money off this?
(I never got the scams in the movie Paper Moon, either).
Boss seems fairly suspicious re that pkg. If this were a murder mystery, he’d be suspect #1.
I can help with one of the Paper Moon scams.
Father walks in with a $5 bill that says Happy Birthday (childs name). Buys something cheap and pockets the change.
Then the Child walks in to buy a pack of bubblegum and pays with a dollar.
When the person at the register gives back only coins the kid starts crying until the manager comes over and while blubbering says “b’but I gave her a five. It was my b’birthday present. It even says it on the b’bill.”
The manager of course looks at the five, and gives the child the five back or the change for the five while apologizing.
You’re selling something for $3,000. Guy sends you a money order for $5,000 and tells you that you should deposit the money order and then send him another money order or check for the $2,000 difference. He usually offers some sum for you to keep as “payment” for going to all this trouble. The bank gives you $5,000 in exchange for you giving them the money order. Then you keep, spend, whatever the $3,000 and send $2,000 to this guy.
Meanwhile, it takes about 2 weeks for your bank to come and tell you that the money order that you gave them was fraudulent. You are on the hook to repay them the $5,000 that they gave to you, plus you have lost the $2,000 that you sent off to Nigeria or wherever.
The way the scam typically works is that someone will offer to buy what you are selling, and they will send you (or someone else will send you) a money order for more than the amount of the sale. Either they owe someone money in the US, or someone else is sending the MO and the buyer needs the rest of the money back, or some other excuse.
You get the money order and deposit it in your bank. You ship the goods and transfer funds for the leftover amount. Two weeks later your bank says the money order is no good. You are now left holding the bag.
The process is the same if someone sends you a check. It’s not some weird flaw in the money-order system alone.
The reason is works is because: people are greedy and want that “extra” money (the money they get in “payment” for sending back the extra to the scammer); people are stupid and think there really is something for nothing; people don’t understand how checks and money orders work and don’t understand that they need to make sure the check/money order CLEARS before they spend that money or send off their product to that person.
Ok, time for me to 'fess up. I touched your boss in his Special Zone and he cried and said he’d tell unless I paid him $3800 split up into 4 $950 money orders. The guilt has been gnawing away at me despite the payoff. Damn conscience!
:eek: I never realized that, I thought checks cleared in 2-3 days and I am use to Credit card purchases. I rarely use checks and I never use Money orders.
(The bulk of my bills are Direct Debit or Automatic Credit Card payments, I guess I don’t live in the real world)
This check-clearing-wait-time thing would only affect you if you are accepting checks. If you are using checks to pay your own bills, then it’s the other company who needs to wait for the check to clear.
The reason the whole check-writing system works is because normal people who write checks, and normal companies that accept checks, are law-abiding. If you, for instance, wrote bogus checks to pay your electric bill and ConEd deposited it; and then ConEd spent that money; and then discovered 2 weeks later that your check was fraudulent, ConEd would slap you with an unpaid check fee, plus report your fraudulent check to their own bank and your bank; plus attempt to collect the money from you and eventually sue you or send it to a collection bureau and report it on your credit report. If you are not a criminal, then it’s easy for them to find you: you are living at the place where they deliver your electricity. You have a job and SSN; you might apply for credit in the future; the IRS has your address, etc. It’s easy to find people who owe them money if they try.
The way these criminals who do the money-order scam are successful is that they are not “anywhere” where you or the bank or ConEd can find them. They are fake, the checks are fake, there is no way to trace them.
