r/personalfinance • u/plazman30 • Jul 09 '24
I am living the scam Other
I'm sure you've all heard of the scam where someone hires you for remote work. They mail you a check to "buy equipment" and then suddenly the deal is off and you need to mail the equipment back, and then the check bounces.
Well, I never thought I would see anyone get suckered by this. Well, my wife responded to a remote work want ad for a customer service rep and they did a Teams interview with her. She obviously figured out the scam pretty quickly once they got to the whole "We'll mail you a check. Here is the equipment you need to buy" part of it.
At that point the only thing they got out of her was her name and where she was located (no exact address). After forcing the guy to call us on Teams and hearing his Russian accent (when he claimed he was from Australia, and his name was not even remotely Russian), we just ignored him completely.
Well, the bastard is persistent. Fedex delivered an envelope with a bank check for almost $4000. The guy is committed. He looked up my home address and overnighted me a fake check for almost $4000. Impressive.
So, the guy claims he's in Atlanta. The Fedex envelope has a California return address, and the issuing bank is a small credit union in Florida. And the company on the check is a construction company who's website is "under construction."
SO MANY red flags here.
And the amount of the check will not cover the cost of the equipment. So, I assume this will be a "You need to cover the difference while we get new check Fedexed to you right away! But buy the equipment ASAP!"
I called the issuing bank and they're very interested in this. They want the check and gave me an address to mail it to.
So, my questions now:
- Do I send them the original check or a copy of it?
- Should I contact anyone else about this? Local law enforcement?
I'm still laughing over the whole thing and wondering how people fall for this.
13
u/thisisbigrob Jul 10 '24
I need to comment on something I haven't seen mentioned -
Ask your wife to make sure she hasn't given the scammer any other information about herself, identifying information (SSN), or bank accounts.
In my day job I deal with a lot of people who haven't been paid for work they performed. Mostly it's construction work where they worked a few days, missed a shift and got fired, and then never got a paycheck. But occasionally it will be someone who fell for this type of scam. I've had a few where the "job" was receiving packages (mostly phones and electronics), inspecting them, then repackaging and mailing them on to another location. They do this for a few weeks and then the "employer" disappears when they start asking why they haven't gotten a paycheck yet.
I have gotten good at explaining the scams to these people but they always have a hard time believing it. And more often than not during the conversation they let slide that they have given way more to the company than they first admit. Copies of their driver's license, copies of their social security card, a voided check to set them up for direct deposit. That's when I realize they are way more screwed than just wasting some time helping people launder stolen goods.
So again, have a frank conversation with your wife. Then contact the local PD or postal inspectors if you want, but then walk away. There's no real way to get back at these people. They know what they are doing and don't care about you trying to mess with them.