ScamVictimsUnited.com

Hi Everyone,

I too am caught up in a US postal money order scam. I was contacted on a match making website. The contact initiated a chat with me, and then later we swapped to yahoo. A number of things should have tipped me off, but being blinded by her niceness, i ignored them. First off, she says she is from Nigeria, but her matchmacking profile has a Detroit, MI address listed. But we continuted to chat.

Similiar to another poster, we became quite close, exchanging personal information, phone numbers and more.

All of a sudden out of the blue she comes to me with a story about how her church has had a fund raiser, but due to the banking situation in Nigeria, they are unable to cash the checks made in the form of donations.

She pleaded with me for help. I immediately thought scam, and questioned at length, why the church can not cash their own checks, why she would be willing to send them to me to cash, etc. She assured me that this was for her church, and she was a fine catholic woman, and she had faith in me as an individual not to steal the money.

I reluctantly agreed, on two conditions. 1. I would verify the authenticity of the checks prior to depositing. and 2. there would be a minimum of a 3 week hold before i sent any money back to allow time for the checks to clear and be doubly checked for authenticity. She agreed to this, which now had me doubting myself about this being a scam. If it was a scam, why would they let me verify the checks, and wait for the funds to clear?

Well i received a FedEx envelope from an address in the U.S. Rochester, NH), with 4 US Postal Money orders in it, for $750.00 each, made out to me. Now im like wait a minute. Where did the checks go? How come i am getting money orders. So I went online and started reading about all of these money order scams. I checked them physically, and they look totally real, they have the watermarks, the stripe with usps in it, the red ink, the dollar amounts are not smudged, the warning is printed on the back. Every single security feature mentioned on the website is on them.

I decided to be safe, and I called the US post office fraud line, to run a check on the serial numbers (which were sequential by the way), and they came back as invalid.

That is where I am at now. I am sitting here with 4 fake money orders, and have no idea what to do. I am by NO MEANS going to get them anywhere near my bank. Thats for sure, and luckily because I am a wary individual I have not lost one cent of my own money.

However, all I have to prove that I am the victim here, are the yahoo chat logs, the fake money orders, and the FedEx envelope.

I want to turn these fake orders in to authorities, but now after reading some of the horror stories here about VICTIMS, being ARRESTED. I am scared and am unsure what to do.

I have bought time with the scammer saying, I am in the waiting process for the checks to be authenticated, but she will want an answer soon.

Any suggestions on what I should do? I can print out the chat logs from the archive, and note as much information as possible, but if I bring all this to the authorities are they going to arrest me?

Should I just shred the money orders, and block her yahoo ID?

Please help!

Thanks!

Turn them over with documents of proof such as chat logs etc to your post master. Then block the yahoo id and report it to yahoo as a nigerian scammer.

I too have gotten money orders in a FedEx Pouch from Germany - they were issued in Nichols NY -

I don't know what to do either -- but will hold on to them for now.

Should I reply to the scammer when he sees me on Yahoo? Or should I just block him?

I wouldn't want him showing up at my house.

Do as KarynSolo has suggested above.

I'm drawing your attention to the IP Relay scams coming via telephone from an IP Relay operator. Nigerians are using IP Relay to contact prospective victims of all walks of life (Ebay, counterfeit cashiers checks, Online for sale ads, businesses, etc...).

IP Relay is a federally funded service that makes telephone communication available to people who are deaf, and they use an operator to communicate their calls from a computer (where the operator is) to people who can hear on the phone. The relay operator relays the conversation back and forth- speaking for the person who is deaf and is typing, and typing back what the person is saying to them from the phone.

Nigerians have HIJACKED this service. They call anyone and everyone they can find online who has something to sell, or who they meet in online dating sites, etc... It's incredibly widespread. Millions of people have been scammed this way. They will call you using Relay, try to buy what you have for sale using stolen credit cards or forged cashiers checks, and after you have sent the item either directly to Nigeria, or to a shipper they are using inside the US as a safe drop point, you find out too late that the Credit card is stolen, or the check is bogus. Try to google the words "Nigeria IP Relay Scams" and see what you come up with.

How do I know all this? I'm a relay operator. I have had to facilitate these scam calls for years. But try to remember, I'm a good guy. I try to call victims on my off time to warn them about the scam each and every time. But there are operators who are too scared to call victims. We could lose our jobs in doing this. It's directly against the rules of the FCC. (that's a very long story).

If you have any questions, there is a newly formed IP Relay operator's website that discusses the scams in depth. I am a moderator at this forum. Here is the link:
http://relayscams.aimoo.com
If you have been scammed, please come there and tell us about it. We can help!

Hey,

I woudln't worry about turning this couterfeit postal money orders to the authorities. However, you might be surprised that they are unwilling to take them.

You should first make copies of the money orders for your records. Second, call your field office of the Secret Service. They are the ones reponsible for money laundering scams after 9/11. They will probably accept your information, but suggest you burn them instead. Be persistant with them and I am sure things will turn out.

Good Luck,

C