Fake Check Scams Are Targeting Your Wallet—Learn the Warning Signs and Avoid the Traps

• For sale—reliable dirt bike. A person selling a used dirt bike posted a notice on the website of his bike club. That seemed a safer place to do business than a large auction site. He soon had several responses. One person offered to buy the bike very quickly. The two chatted via email. The prospective buyer was friendly and eager to buy. However, to expedite the sale, the prospective buyer wanted to have a third person (who owed him money) send a certified check for more money than the cost of the bike directly to the bike seller. Because the check was for more than the price of the bike, the prospective buyer asked the seller to deposit the check in his account and then wire the buyer the excess money. The buyer would then pick up the bike later. The problem? The “certified” check was really a high-class, hard-to-detect counterfeit. Before the seller learned the check was a fake, he’d already sent the “buyer” the excess overpayment—$6,000.
• Dinner for two. A young man signed up with a respectable, legitimate online dating service. A young woman, who was very friendly, contacted him. As they got to know each other, the young woman encouraged his interest in starting a business of his own. Her “brothers” and “friends” back home in Nigeria planned to start a business in the U.S. and she suggested they could be partners. She introduced them by phone and email. Her “brothers” would provide the start-up money for the business if he would handle the U.S. end of the banking. The start-up check for more than $30,000 would come from a North American company that owed them money. As their partner, the young man would simply wire $9,500 in cash to three business associates in Canada, and they’d take it from there. The problem was that the “certified” corporate check was counterfeit—a quality replica of a real check that had been stolen.

• The scam appears to send you “real” money—usually a cashier’s check or certified check drawn on a U.S. bank (sometimes even a postal money order)—before asking you to wire or express part or all of that money to the scammer or some third party. The scam relies on our belief that real cashier’s and certified checks and postal money orders are more trustworthy than personal checks. However, the counterfeit checks or money orders that the scammers send are very good and tough to identify as fake.
• The scam is initiated in response to a legitimate activity that you are pursuing—for instance, on a website or in a classified ad, you are selling an item such as car, bike, boat or jewelry, offering a service such as renting an apartment, seeking employment or signing up for a chat room, dating service or other recreational activity. In the original versions of the Nigerian scam, the “offer” arrives unsolicited—in a letter, an email, a fax—and some of the new versions, particularly the “you’ve-won-a-sweepstakes” ploy, still arrive unsolicited.
• Once the scammer is in touch with you, they often chat via email or phone, talking about the item or service you have for sale. They appear friendly, sincere, and aboveboard. Also, they don’t want you to send any money in advance, only after you have their “money” deposited in your account. They work hard to win your trust—but appearing trustworthy is the con artist’s primary tool in getting you to act.

• You are selling an item on the Internet or via a newspaper ad. The “buyer” wants to send you a cashier’s check or certified check that “overpays” the price you are asking, often by thousands of dollars. You are to wire that “overpayment” in cash to them.
• You have posted your resume on a job-search/employment Website. You get an offer of a “job” with a signing bonus. But the “signing bonus” check will be much bigger than your amount. You are to wire that excess amount in cash to an address they give you.
• You have won a sweepstakes or lottery (often said to be from a foreign country such as Canada)—the check in the mail proves it—but you will need to wire cash to the specified address to cover the “taxes” or “customs” or other fees before claiming your prize.
• You have an apartment for rent. An “interested party” from a non-local or foreign location is so eager to take the lease that they’re sending you the deposit and first month’s rent by express and by cashier’s check. However, the check (for some plausible reason) will be larger than the amount you want. You are to wire or express them the overpayment.