If someone you don’t know wants to pay you by
check and wants you to send some of the money
back, beware! It’s a scam that could cost you
thousands of dollars.
There are many variations of the scam. It
starts with someone offering to buy something
you advertised for sale, pay you to work at
home, give you an "advance" on a sweepstakes you
won, or pay the first installment on millions
you’ll receive for transferring money in a
foreign country to your credit union account for
safekeeping. The scammers often claim to be in
other countries and say it’s too difficult to
pay you directly, so they’ll have someone in the
U.S. who owes them money send you a
check.
The amount of the check may be more than
you’re owed, so you’re instructed to deposit it
and wire the rest to the scammer. Or you’re told
to wire some of the money back to pay a fee to
claim your "winnings." Whatever the set-up, the
result is the same – after you wire the money,
the check bounces.
These checks look so real that even tellers
may be fooled. Under federal law, financial
institutions must make the funds you deposit
available quickly – usually within a few days.
But just because you can withdraw the money
doesn’t mean the check is good, even if it’s a
cashier’s check. Forgeries can take weeks to
discover.
The credit union works very hard to identify
fraudulent checks before they are accepted, but
ultimately you’re responsible for checks you
deposit, If they bounce, you owe the money that
was withdrawn. Financial Institutions may even
take it from your account or sue you to recover
it. In some cases, authorities could bring
charges against victims because it may look like
they were involved in the scam and knew the
check was counterfeit.
There is no legitimate reason for
someone who is giving you money to ask you to
also send money back. If you think someone is
trying to pull a fake check scam, don’t
deposit it – report it!
You can find more information, or report a
suspected scam, by contacting the National
Consumer League’s National Fraud Information
Center at