Fake check scam claims another victim

November 11, 2007 in Scams by Trench Reynolds | No comments

The check is in the mail, but it’s fake:
It happened almost a year ago but it still bears repeating…

It’s been about a year since Kathy and Robert Milton got taken, and they’re still angry and hurt.

The Marysville couple wanted to sell their bedroom set, so they put an ad on the Craigslist web site.

Within a day they got a response from Melody Landrus, who said she wanted to buy the furniture and have it shipped to Alaska. In her e-mail, Landrus told the Milton’s to expect a check for $3,500, which was much more than the Milton’s were asking.

“We were supposed to send $2,000 to her mover and then the rest was ours to keep for the troubles and the transaction fees, ’cause it was all Western Union,” Kathy said.

Robert said they assumed they would make a few extra hundred dollars off the deal. “It looked like a valid check, right out of a checkbook,” he said.

Before wiring the $2,000, Robert and Kathy contacted their bank to make sure the check had cleared. They were assured that it had.

“We assumed when it clears, it clears,” Kathy said.

A week later, when the check bounced, the bank pulled $3,500 — the amount of the bogus check — out of the Milton’s account.

“After late charges and bank fees, it was well in excess of $4,000 that we got hit for,” Robert said.

The article also contains this helpful piece of information which most people don’t realize…

The scam takes advantage of the fact that just because a check supposedly clears and the bank posts the money in your account, it doesn’t mean the bank can’t later take that money back if it finds out the check was a counterfeit.

Again, if you absolutely have to do business on craigslist always insist on cash only.

Sphere: Related Content

Tags: check scam, Melody Landrus