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Too good to be true?

clutch fool

clutch fool

OG MUFF DIVER
I got a letter/check in the mail today from a Canadian company asking me to be a "Mystery Shopper" at Wal*Mart and Sears. The check is for $4,950.00 and has a break down of funds. It says $700 of it is for two hours of my pay, $3,900 for a collection agency to hold, $200 for money gram and $150 to be spent at one of their stores. The check looks legit and is hand signed from a bank called 'Scotia bank'. If this is a scam and they want me to deposit it and send money back before the bank realizes its a bad check, couldn't I just cash it and wait a while to make sure its real? I know this sounds too good to be true, but seems harmless as long as I don't spend/send the money until Im sure its legit. What would you do?
 
mlowmk5

mlowmk5

nothing rhymes w/ orange
Don't do it. There is no such thing as free money!!! I'm sure there is something somewhere that is illegal and will ultimately screw you.
 
residentevol

residentevol

Fugitive Trucker
And secret shopper agencies dont pay that well...I know someone that works for one. It's chump change.
 
DUB2OT

DUB2OT

Banned
that's a loan dude as soon as you cash or deposit the check you gonna have to pay it all back plus the interest. to be sure just Google the bank and the check see what comes up lol.
 
clutch fool

clutch fool

OG MUFF DIVER
welp.....looks like i wont be cashing large checks any time soon.



edit: damn and i spoke to this guy too. i should fuck with him.
 
PRND[S]

PRND[S]

The Lame & The Ludicrous
It is probably worse than what is detailed in the link provided by eurocars. Most of these scams send you a fraudulent check that will eventually bounce, but in the meantime you have spent the money and sent some of it somewhere (the $3900 in this case) via Western Union, which is non-reversible -- once you send the money, it is gone and can be picked up anywhere in the world, most likely Nigeria.

So you send $3900 to some jackhole, and ten days later you get a call from your bank saying the check you deposited bounced, and you're now in the hole for the money you sent to the scammer, the Western Union transfer fee, and any money you spent shopping for worthless items you'd never buy otherwise.
 
PRND[S]

PRND[S]

The Lame & The Ludicrous
The bank name and ACH routing number may be real, but the account number could be made up or be for some other type of account like a deposit-only business account. It could also be the account of some poor retiree on a fixed income and with minimal funds, and bounce for that reason, it doesn't really matter to the scammer.

The fact that this is a foreign (Canadian) bank is actually part of the scam, it delays the detection of the fraud because Canadian banks aren't directly tied into the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system of the Federal Reserve. This gives the scammer several days before requesting that the victim wire the "excess funds" via Western Union. By the time the check bounces (known as a "return"), you sent the money off to God knows where, and the bank will deduct the amount of the bounced check plus a return fee and possibly an overdraft fee from the account you deposited the fake check into.

I spent nearly ten years designing and implementing payment processing systems for both credit card and electronic check (ACH) transactions, including fraud prevention.
 
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