I'm renting a house on Craigslist right now. Last week, I recieved an inquiry about the house, from a guy in England. He asked for my address, so he could mailed me the money for the deposit and rent. I don't know this person, we hadn't done a background check on him and he just wanted to rent the house, sight unseen. I was very suspicious and refused to have anymore contact with him. I think, if people would just use a little more common sense and not be so greedy, fewer people would be scanned.

I have a friend that is totally BLINDED TO SEE THE TRUTH!
THIS PAST 11 YEARS HE HAS SENT $$$$$$$$ ALL OVER THE WORLD TO "ACTUALLY believe HE WILL RECIEVE A return!" I have showed him many times on paper, news reports and when to watch TV to see the truth and allow the TRUTH to set him FREE! Yet he will not listen! All I can do now is to just Pray... and allow only Jesus to show him the way, the truth, and the life HE EXCEPTS us to accept and totally believe. Amen!

I received a check last week from England. I read it to see what it was about not knowing of the check scam thing. It said that I won the lotto and that I had to send a certain amount of money back to them to cover the fees. Well, I knew right off the back it was not real and also the fact that it was sent to my P.O. Box was another alert. Also, knowing that I never entered a lotto drawing. There was a phone number, so I tried to call and it gave a message one day and the next day it just rung over and over.

How the HELL could banks have allowed such a FLAWED rule to exist, & why do they make THE INNOCENT VICTIM (who also happens to be THEIR CUSTOMER) pay?!?!?!

Excellent piece on scams that are part of a big picture in America-rampant fraud perpetrated on the innocent. We see this mess everywhere from phony builders(mainly swimming pool guys), to phoney jobs that promise higher than normal pay government jobs, to unbelievable great internet jobs. Man someone needs to step up-say the Justice Dept. would do nicely.

I have listed several things on craigslist, and every time I get a few emails from someone pulling this scam. The warnings are posted everywhere. USE YOUR HEAD people. Why would someone in California want to buy a used couch from someone in AZ for $600 and send me a check for $2000 first?

Its plain common sense. People who fall for these scams deserve what they get for being ignorant.

I was dealing with a lady named Elizabeth, from London, since September 19th. She wanted to send us money to rent an apartment and we were to send the remaining balance to her travel agent. She told us that she was an heiress !! We finally stopped emailing on September 29th when we informed her that we could not assist her with her needs. THANK GOD!!

The BANKS allowed this SERIOUSLY FLAWED rule to exist, so WHY THE H#LL SHOULD THEIR CUSTOMERS PAY FOR THE SCAMS?!?!?! BANKS, THEMSELVES, HAVE ALL BEEN SCAMMING US EVER SINCE THEY'VE BEEN ESTABLISHED, AS IT IS!!!

Be suspicious. And yes have a little common sense. I JUST got this email last week in response to my posting on craigslist. If something like this doesn't raise your suspicions I don't know what would.

"Hello Kim,
Thanks for your reply.I intend to move to the states in soonest.I am willing to pay you the rental fee along with the utilities.. Well i'll need your favour on something which would also serve as my means of payment. My Boss owes me some funds and i told him that i've secured a room ,he agreed to pay up and said he'll inform his partner in Canada to send a Us certified check to you.Send me your full names, address and phone number to send the payment get across to you. Once you receive it, kindly take them to your bank & have them cashed. From this you can deduct the total amount for the room & in due course of time i will forward to you my name & address to have some of the balance sent back to me. With this i will be able to buy my ticket & pay for freight fee that will be bringing my things over. The remaining i will pick up when i arrive. I wont be bringing much over as i intend to buy most afresh there. But my PC will be coming with me surely & other personal belongings.Thank you so very much for understanding.
i hope to hear from you soon.

Yours with all sincerity
Juliet Harrison"

Pu-leese. I let "her" know real quick that I'd have to be an idiot to do something like that

Instead of making check funds available quickly, why can't people (agree to) wait for the bank to verify liquidity?

I've had a similar encounter on Craig's list but luckily red flags went up and I avoided becoming a victim. The old addage is true : you don't get something for nothing. These are all people thinking they're getting free money and they get taken. If you're doing business online you have to be aware of the liars and cheats and the ways they do business. I agree banks should be better able to detect a fake money order or check or put some sort of protectin in place for consumers. Lord knows they make sure they are protected. Basic rule: Protect yourself. No one else will!

This sort of thing has been going on for a very long time. It's just that with the internet, these grifters have a lot more targets. It used to be that when a grifter got caught they were lucky to escape with their lives. I only have to say that if you're gullible enough to believe that someone would send you a check for $25,000 for $4,000 in rent/security deposit, you should be letting someone else manage your finances. Think about it! Would YOU send a complete stranger $25,000 to rent a house you've never seen, where the rent is only $4,000, and expect the renter to return the difference? That sort of thinking is just plain stupid.

The same thing happened to me as Jill's. I received a check in the mail stating that I won $40,000 and encloseed was a check for $4000. To claim the $40,000, I had to send wire $4000 to Montereal. I deposited the check in the bank and waited for it to clear. A week later, I contacted the bank and they told me it is cleared, so I went and cashed the money and wire it to Montereal. I felt so stupid when the bank called me the next day saying that the check was no good. I had to take a $4000 loan to pay for my stupid mistake. I did this based on the information I received from the bank, otherwise I would have tore the check up. Live and learn.

As long as we as humans allow our quest for that ultimate "free lunch" to guide our ship of life, the vicious cycle of take or be taken will continue.

A very sad state of mind to be in.

Who are gullible enough to fall for these scams ? I betcha they are one and the same who voted for GW Bush twice.

I just sold a bed on craigslist and had two 'different' people try to tell that their bank had 'accidentally' drafted $2000 dollars too much and would I mind forwarding the rest to their mover via western union.I thought it odd both were planning on buying a used bed yet had a 'mover' on hand to pick up the bed. Who can I report these two individuals to?

I posted a used textbook on the facebook marketplace. A few days later I had an inquiry from a guy in England who wanted me to receive his check for $2500 and then wire the rest of it back to a "shipper" in London. It was a $30 book! I stopped communication with him and when I received the check I took it to the bank. It's crazy that they even want to scam you over such small purchases.

Very simple. Just refuse to mail back ANY money until the check clears.

This scam has been going on for 10-20 years, and just now, the USPS is going to take action. It's too little, too late.

I would like to add something about ebay
two weeks ago someone got into my ebay account. They purchased laptop computers the mailing address was in Nigeria. whoever this was change all my ebay account information to theirs. they also gained access to my paypal account. I was out $9,650.00. It has been ia real mess trying to fix. My paypal account had my checking account information as well as a credit card on file. I Will no longer do business with Paypal, Because of this it's not worth the trouble.

This is so true. I went around and around with a guy who wanted to purchase my bass guitar from me on Craigslist. He kept asking for more information with each email, but I finally wised up when he mentioned his secretary "accidentally" wrote a check in the thousands, and this for an item that probably wasn't worth more than $300. Moreover, the check was already "mistakenly" on its way by UPS, and I should just cash it and then he'd tell me what to do next. Sellers beware.

That's what paypal is for! I heard an interview this morning with a woman that seemed intelligent who got a notice of winning a lottery. the first clue is, if you didn't enter it yourself. If you won the powerball, the state wouldn't ask you for fees, they are deducted BEFORE you get the check.

Bottom line, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

Almost every time the news of gullible Americans are showed on ABC News, the victims are portrayed as smart and innocent. I will beg to differ here, I see these victims as idiots; otherwise, how can person take $21,000 check for a $4,000 business transaction? Not even Walmart can take $21,000 check from a customer like that. The purpose of check writing is to simplify and not to complicate business transaction. Let us ask one of the victims above who is said to be a manager, isn't it faster for your customer in London to cash his check in England than for him to waite for their check to be mailed to American and then cashed in American and the balance wired back to London? Why can't the customer write the exact amount on the check? My bank recently charged me $45.00 for international wire transfer and $15 for national transfer, that is a lot of money to pay just to give balance.

Do you guys want us to sympathize with idiots who cash lottery checks when they did not play any lottery. It never ocur to the victims that you have to present a winning lottery ticket you bought at the Gas Station before you can claim your check. The so called victims are as guilty as the scammers because they want free money. Many gullible victims are criminals who want to help oversea criminal to transfer stolen money. Gullibility should not be advertized and anyone who use the Internet or has an email address who by now don't know about the Internet scams are a moron.

i can not believe how stupid some of you people are!!! anyone who is dumb enough to fall for these scams deserve everything they get. use some common sense people!!! come on, winning a lottery that you never bought a ticket for...that should be a red flag, use your head and quit trying to be greedy.

This is nothing new--- been going for years. Here is my reply to the latest "hitman" wanting to send me an electronic check for my item on craigslist. And then I notify their email i.e. hotmail of the scammer

Sure please call to set this up
(I insert # of local police- non emergency here)
Ask for Locke Miup who is my financial assistant
Best Regards
Bob

shakespearetobe, you hit that nail right on the head! For a person to think that someone that they didn't know, AT ALL, was sending them more than enough money for a security deposit...I'd think their elevator doesn't go all the way to the top, ANYWAY! Even if the check was LEGIT...THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL, I'm gonna send you my HARD EARNED MONEY AND TRUST THAT YOU'RE GONNA TAKE WHAT YOU'RE "SUPPOSED" TO & NOT GONNA RUN OFF WITH ALL OF IT!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

I think that was BOB who posted that comment!!

I recently posted an ad for an antique stove. I was selling the stove for $500 and received a check for $3500. I immediately knew there was something wrong. I contacted the company listed on the check and our local police. The company listed on the check was grateful that I called instead of immediately cashing the check as it was a bad check. What really got me was that I called the bank listed on the check and they stated it was a good check. I told the company listed what the bank said and they were very upset. The police said they couldn't do anything because it's not a crime until I try to cash the check, which I didn't. I then received an email from the individual that sent the check stating they were going to call the FBI and report me! I emailed them back and told them to please do contact the FBI, that I would love to hear what they have to say about sending fradulent checks through the US Mail. I never heard from them again. It just goes to show that the old saying "You never get something for nothing" is true and everyone should be a little suspicous of "free" money.

There is an old saying: "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is." These are *old* scams that have been around for a while now.

This scam has been around eBay for years. It and the Nigerian "You Got a Fortune" letter. I am surprised people still go for it. People, people, you are not a check cashing service!

I am yet another victum I knew in my heart a scam desperation and need to save my home pushed me into making the wrong desision. BUT- I would like to warn bank employees to help desperate customers- I asked the teller and the manager of the bank 3 times in person if the money was actually there and he approved the transaction for me- in hind sight he should have seen I was doubtful and needed his compassion and cool intelligence to help me. I was looking for any reason not to do it. They had my number at work and were harrassing me all day to make the transaction.

Wait for 30 days. What are they going to do? Take you to small claims court?

Last Fall I was selling a snowmobile in the local paper. One night I had a strange phone call from a service that is used for the deaf. Basically the operator speaks to me for a person on a computer. The person said they were interested and asked for an email to set things up. In the email they said they were moving back to the U.K. and needed the snowmobile. They were sending me a check to cash and give the excess to their business associate at a moving company and to keep a little extra for my troubles. Anyways it seemed fishy and too good to be true from the get go.
These people have alot of us pegged as greedy Americans, the sad thing is in some cases they're right and they play on that knowing if you wave $$ in our face we lose our common sense and go for it. We have to wisen up and try to remember that if it seems too goog to be true, it probably is.

Thanks ABC Good Morning America, I saw your story on Fake Checks hitting ebay and Craig List users. My daughter said she sold her daughters bunk beds on Craigslist. A check arrived today via UPS, for $1660.00 more than what she sold the beds for. The guy tells her to cash the "cashier's check" and pay the shipper the $1660.00 for shipping $300 worth of bunk beds! I told her I didn't trust this transaction. The cashier's check looked real, had the watermarks, etc... so she took it to her bank (Chevy Chase) and they told her
that it would have to be deposited. She got a copy of the check, and called the issuing bank, only to find out that the check is a fraud. We reported it to UPS and to the bank which both said
they would investigate. The sad truth is that when she reported it to the local police for a report they said that they would not take any action, since she was "not defrauded". I am not happy with that answer and will pursue it with the VA State Police or Federal agents.... if he is doing this to her, then he is doing it to others...
BEWARE!

Bob, that is funny! People, it's simple. If you have the smallest notion that it could be fraud...it is. If you actually fall for something like this, wait unitl it clears the bank and take your time sending the money out...100% gauranteed that it won't be there to take out. What's worse is that there is no way to catch these people...that's why banks need to figure something else out to make sure people are safe from these pigs.

SORRY TO TELL YOU...

The same is happening in Canada too !

The scammers are also winning online and at forums with their sad stories about a lost relative in Africa and need help with a little CASH donation...

AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS !

I purchased merchandise on ebay from a couple in NC last September. Sent payment, never received merchandise. Contacted authorities in NC, claimed they were looking into matter. Year later, no merchandise, out of 40.00.

The "flawed" rule was not pushed through by the banks. They were happy with the old rule that allowed for several days to determine the legitimacy of deposited checks. It was whiney consumers that pushed their legislators to make the new law. The consumers didn't want to wait a week for their funds to be available when they deposited checks.

You can wait 30 days, before sending the check back to them. And you'll find out that it's a scam. But meanwhile, there'll be countless more who didn't wait... They didn't scam you, but I'm sure they'll have scamed others.

Craigslist has HUGE WARNINGS all over the site to never, EVER deal in checks of any kind, and to always make transactions locally with payment in cash. If people choose to disregard that disclaimer because they think they know better, then they deserve 100% of the consequences. This is just common sense stuff, people!

The common theme I see through all these very interesting posts is that the main problem here is that law enforcement/the FBI do not seem to be able to do anything about this until it is too late.

These fraudsters should be nailed for wire fraud with 5 years in jail immediately ... Get enough in jail and this problem will stop.

About a month ago, someone called up our store (an Ashley Furniture Homestore) calling to say that she had signed on with Ashley Furniture as an online work-at-home employee after recieving an email. She gave her address to whomever sent her the email and 2 weeks later, she recieved a whole big box full of $800 money orders that were typed. She was told in another email to put them in her account and wire the money to an account that supposedly belonged to Ashley. She asked us what we normally did with them. We told her Ashley has no work-at-home employees to our knowledge. She told us the box came from a coca cola bottling company address in California. They were obviously counterfiets and luckily we stopped her from ever doing it. So far, Ashley's legal team is trying to get ahold of these fraudsters and has warned Homestores across America about the scam.

I was selling a used car about 3 months ago for $5,000 (Craigslist) and I received an e-mail from a person with very poor English. He told me that he was very interested in the car and would send me $8,000, $5,000 for the car and $3,00 for shipping fees. I told him, for $3,000, I would deliver the car myself. Never heard from him again.
I called the police and the bank before I did anything and they told me it probably was a scam. I also called the Attorney General's office but I never heard back from them.
People shouldn't be so dumb, they should realize that no one is giving money away. If they are, you've got to know that something is wrong.

I don't have any sympathy for people that fall for scams. Most of the times they're greedy people that looking to make a fast free buck off someone they perceive to be down on their luck, they they are the ones that are made to lose their money and really be down on their luck. Serves them right.

There are alot of trusting people and they should be more careful. There are also alot of criminals who take advantage of these people.

If I have won anything, send it to me. No! I am not concerned with you giving me extra on the check, you aint getting anything back. I will gladly wait till the check actually clears the back...if not...no problem for me.
Someone once said...there is no such thing as a free lunch and scammers will not get one from me.
How many people have to be defrauded by these people before they know it is a scam? This is not today's news people.

buyer and / or seller BEWARE....always!

If you are stupid enough to send any money until the money's clear they deserve to get screwed. It happened to my friend and I told him to keep the overage - he gave the price it is not his place, with someone paying by check, to make change. He agreed, got all excited and it was a fake. But he had his money. Once again if people are that dumb they deserve it...

This sort of thing happened to me and my husband. We put our washer and dryer on ebay to sell and we received an offer from a guy who claimed to live overseas. He was supposedly in some sort of business and he fooled us into thinking it was real. Our price for the washer and dryer was $1000.00 but he sent a check for a little over $3000.00. My husband put it in the bank and sure enough a week later, we were $3000 in the hole. What's really bad is that we have a baby and together we don't make a fortune. Luckily, we were able to fix the problem but our baby could've been without food. Please be careful when you list things to sell. You can easily be scammed without knowing it.

About 3 months ago, I received one of these letters and a check. The check came out of Canada. I didn't think too much of it since the letter that came with it stated the name of my bank. I had been placed in a lottery through some transaction I had taken.
I had heard some horror stories about cashing checks and returning the "fees" to the bank the original check had been written, so I sent the check through the shredder! If I hadn't read about scams in a previous news article, it would have seemed legitimate to me.
I have to admit, I was tempted to take it to my bank to actually verify it's authenticity, but just dumped it instead since I had doubts.
It still urks me that my transaction through the bank had actually been mentioned in the letter that accompanied the "lottery" check.

I am victim of this scam by default. The only way my information got to the individuals was I was applying for a job that you can do from home and I thought is was a real opportunity. I went on vacation for a week and I do not have internet service at home I received the checks not having any idea it related to the email scam about a job I go to the bank to deposit after being on vacation the checks about a week later the Bank tells me the checks were no good and ask me how did I receive the checks?I told them. That's when they told me I was probably scam so investigated this and come to find out I was scam and I also explain to Bank to what happen, now the Bank is after me for the money and decided to press charges when I am the victim.

Donna,
You should have taken your issue up with Ebay directly. I think they would have rectified the situation. It may not be too late to try now.

So often I receive emails saying I've won some European lottery. My email address was the lucky one. Right. I also have been receiving job offers - I have to send all of my personal information to someone overseas...sure, I'll get right on that. Despite best efforts to inform the public that these things are scams, people still believe they are real. I seriously doubt it has anything to do with how you voted in the last presidential election - but this is a serious problem creating a mountain of financial woes to unsuspecting individuals. If someone continues to receive these types of emails - is there somewhere to report them or just keep deleting? It would be nice to have these people caught - although I'm sure they operate in and out of so many places that may not be possible.

I'm a Nigerian residing in California and I'm amazed people fall for this scams seriously. You gotta be real desperate or plain greedy to fall for these scams. I tried selling a cell cell phone on craigslist a few weeks ago for $100 and got several emails from several individuals-one residing in the UK asking that they would send me a check for a $1000 and that I should pls wire the difference to an address in Nigeria. I wrote back to the individual that I was a Nigerian myself and that I was going to personally come down to hunt him down and have him thrown in jail..haa..haa He never got back to me although a few days later I received his phony check. It looked so real.

In all due respect, and I mean this with the greatest kindness....How stupid do you have to be to be duped by someone with such an obvious scam. I'd love to blame the American educational system, but it seems common sense is what is lacking here. Stunning!

I haven't seen any cheque-issuing bank that doesn't have an internet site these days...it's a simple affair to lookup the name of the bank and take appropriate measures.

In all cases, buyer beware. Do people normally 'over-pay' for their groceries, car-payments and such? No.

Verify the buyer. Ensure they exist. With all the resources available today, this fraud should occur less, not more, since as consumers, we have so much more power to investigate.

-osgo

I just want to say that it's not the fincial institution's fault that people are idiots and think that they would actually call someone and verify their account info!!! WRONG!! Why would a place want to verify info when they should already have it on file?!?!?!? And people have no clue what they are talking about when they call a Federal Regulation a "flawed rule". There are certain days that checks are allowed to be available, but some institutions don't go by that... they put certain checks on hold for longer and will only give so much to the person who is depositing the check.
Also people who think that they have won the lottery or some BS like that are totally DUMB!!! If you know beyond a shadow of doubt that you have not entered a lottery, don't cash in the funds. And if you received mail with papers looking like a check, make sure you study it because somewhere on the "check" it will say... "THIS IS NOT A CHECK". That's happened to some people, they have taken an Ed McMann check to a financial institution and deposited the "check" and of course it came back fake!!!!

This person expressed no interest in the items advertised and instead wrote:

Rama Devi Shanigarapu

Please send me your address and phone number.

ANYONE ELSE HAVE A SIMILAR PROBLEM?

sounds more like you were scamming the bank. Why would anyone in their right mind deposit checks from whence you know not where they come from, nor why? You seem contradictory in your knowlege of how these checks came to you - if you didn't earn anything from a home job - how could you come to the conclusion they were valid?

To LORI - happens all the time - most e's I receive of this nature end in the trash - those that make it through - also end in the trash - unopened...

and TO ALL: Here's another issue to be aware of... DO NOT provide and addressing information to anyone - ever, when transacting even legitimate sales via the internet. Buyer's have no need to know this type of information, since after the sale is agreed upon - either the item ships to THEM at an agreed upon address; or if it's a large item - it can be arranged to be picked up at a 'neutral' location.

PROVIDING YOUR ADDRESS can be part of a scam. NOW they know your address and can set up surveylance to watch when you leave - and ransack your home and belongings.

Paranoia - no - good common sense and self protection - yes!

Along with some of the sensible comment here - please also review this:

DO NOT provide home addresses when asked for them - it's advisable not to provide land-line numbers either.

Many of these scammers are looking for home addresses to further pursue illegal opportunities and they also could have people in place to surveyl your home - watch when you leave - then rob you blind; including any vehicles or other large big ticket items.

They could be emailing you from across the street with 'blind' mirror sites in place, indicating they're from anywhere on the planet.

BE SMART - with all the advanced technology at everyone's fingertipe it can be challenging - but no technology replaces solid common sense and a little suspicion.

Americans are moving so fast that they cannot think properly. And the banks are truly EVIL! If people don't stop and consider what they are contributing to, OVERALL, then the day is coming when we will wake up in another country but on the same land. The US government will not step in to help unless there is something in it for them. Them being the representatives elected to protect citizens. Banks and corporations are killing the soul of the people of America.

It's sad people resort to this, but even more sad people are just not aware of it. Anyone who does business online should be required to take a crash course in scams. If the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.. and LOOK FOR HORRIBLE ENGLISH.. every single scam I've gotten is in horrible english. Nigerians run these out of internet cafe's, but I've even had some run out of the USA. They will also always send you these checks via UPS/Fedex/DHL because if they sent it via USPS they'd have the feds crawling up their rear end.

For the people that say its common sense, yes your right it is, but when you are suspicious but you figure that the bank would catch it and let you know. I am not a dumb person but in the event you are trying to sell stuff to move and you have a lot going on like i did, I relied on the bank to not post a bad check to my account. I lost 4500 and I am 24years old.. A stupid situation when you are moving out on your own and all the money that was saved for 2 years had to go to the bank. I dont appreciate the people making common sense statements. I was held 100% accountable And I was the onethat caught it the bank didn't inform me until one month later. to top it off I had already given back the money. I think this is a great piece and wished it aired in the beginning of the summer so that maybe I would have known that the bank isnt full proof

I have never heard that banks have to have a certain amount available to customers after a deposit. I know my bank Wamu puts holds on plenty of checks. Sometimes the holds are a week, ten days, one time a friend (who had an overseas check) was told the hold was 4-6 weeks! (Her check was legit btw.) If banks can (and regularly) put holds on suspicious checks or checks over X amount to verify the funds, then they should and not put innocent depositers at risk.

PEOPLE, I have a great Opportunity for you, I will sell you Ocean front property on Mount Olympus, Really cheap, Now, I promise it's a great deal. the view is awesome.

Craigslist is home to dozens of other scams as well. One in particular which irks me are the myriad of 'phony' employment postings designed solely to harvest your resume and personal information. God only knows what they do with it once they get their hands on it, like sending it over to Nigeria or something. I can only imagine the incredible volume of identity theft cases that must arise from this very simple and easy act of 'information harvesting of trusting suckers'.

PLEASE for God's sake people, NEVER EVER post or send your resume to a 'mystery employer' on Craigslist, meaning one that you can't verify, or you could be in for a world of hurt. I really wish Brian Ross' investigative team would look into these type scams as well.

Why are you so high and mighty that you can sit there in judgment of other people? This happened to me. I did not know that the check would be for a huge amount until I received. When I took it to the bank, my bank told me it was no good. And how dare you imply that people are greedy? Some people probably really need the money that they're asking for.
And it's scammed, not scanned.

Last week, I received 5 emails from Lottery scams to inheritance, etc. I replied telling them that I had turned them into the FBI and Interpol and the emails have stopped. I was getting around 5 or 6 per day. Last summer, one party went so far as to send me a phony check and I tried to turn it over to the Sherrif's dept., post office, FBI, etc. Everyone said that there is nothing that can be done. Is this fair to victims?

I love these craigslist scammers! Their stories are hilarious. "Aye, I'm a sea captain that needs to pay for an apartment." Arg, me wants your money because you're gullible and willing to believe a story that's too good to be true.

It seems that the people who get scammed most often are the same people who will never ask questions about things they don't understand. Maybe it's a fear of looking stupid. People don't mind being stupid, they just don't want to look stupid. Even the most intelligent people out there don't know everything about everything.

As someone in banking I would like to clear up a few things that people take for granted. First, customers are very angry when there is a hold placed on their checks. Second, banks prefer holds because have loses as a result of bad checks. The regulations that are over funds availability are enforced by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) so that customers can access their own money and banks are forced to follow them even when they do not want to. Third, customers call to see if their funds are available which means if there is no longer a hold on their account, NOT that the actual check they deposited has cleared. There is no way to look up if a check has cleared unless you have it sent for collection (costs about 10 dollars) or wait a week or two to make sure it does not come back. The safest way is to have it sent for collection. Fourth, I just want to say that although our natural response may be to think of the victims as idiots, I have seen many who are either disabled and it was proposed as a work for the disabled non-proft that they received the checks through, or people who are from a very small town and they are just way too naive to deal with the world we live in especially the world wide web. I keep telling our customers that nothing is for free and if it seems to good to be true it definitely is. P.S. Same goes for "free subscriptions", please do not give out your debit card number to someone to pay for shipping of a free gift or for a free subscription because trust me, you and your bank will lose a lot of money by the time it is all over.

OMG- this is EXACTLY what is happening to me right now - got contacted by a guy posing as a Doctor in London looking to rent an aprt from himself and his wife and 9 year old daughter... he said he's out here int he US working on a private research study for the environmental agency and is willing to sign a year lease, blah blah blah and has no problems sending me 6 months in advance for rent. I plan on ceasing all cnotact as of tonight. Thanks for this everyone!

First of all if someone says they have accidently overpaid you for an item and the check is on the way, then tell them to do a stop pay and reissue. That will weed them out.

Funny how these people think that we the receiver of these checks should go out of our way to send them back money from an overpayment? Funny how they are so stupid to think we should be thoughfulland not just keep it, not like it's real money so who's worried on their end?
Not to mention, if you deposit it, and the check is bad, your bank will slap will with a Returned Item Fee.

Hi Everyone, there is one thing that is bothering me here,as I read through all the stories. Yes,some people might be a bit stubid but they rely on there bank to help them. When they deposit the check/checks and wait a week or two. And the bank tells them that it has cleared. And then to find out after the fact that it didn't. Then why should it be the customer who suffers here.For goodness sakes if the bank tells you the check is clear and its not then its the banks fault not the customers. And the bank should take the loss not the customer for their mistake saying it cleared in the 1st place. But then again if I would ever get something like that and had any doughts on it, I would put it into a new account not my own and sit on it as long as I could. If you can't trust your bank, then who do you trust????????

I agree with KodasGifts. If the bank told the customer 1-2 weeks later that the check cleared with no problems and that the money was available for the customer to spend, the BANK should be liable for any losses.

I need to correct my last statement, I agree with JodyA. I just realized the names were below the comments :o)