ScamVictimsUnited.com

Hello - someone named Joseph Tyler, using the Email address joetyl440@keromail.com and the Yahoo! ID joetyl430 sent me 4 counterfeit U.S. Postal Money Orders, $750 each. I was selling a camera online (Yahoo! Classifieds, which, by the way, is filled with SCAMMERS and Yahoo! should be ashamed) and he told me the extra fees were for shipping, customs, and other fees. They looked real to me and I deposited them (only because it was morning and USPS didn't have enough money yet), took out $2600, and sent it to someone via Western Union. The money orders didn't come back returned until at least two weeks after depositing them. He sent 4 more before the original 4 were returned, but I took these to USPS and was told they were counterfeit. They told me USPIS would invesitagte and call me; never, ever, got a call. They also gave me my local USPIS office number, yet they never, ever pick up calls. RIDICULOUS. So, now, I have 2-3 days before my bank ends everything with me and does whatever it's going to do. I have absolutely no money; after I found out this was a scam, I quit my job because I was so depressed. But, I have a few questions:

1) How does the Western Union transfer part work? I was told to send it to Cynthia Anderson, 44 Gerrard Street, London, UK W1V 8HB. Is this a real person/name and a real and their true location?

2) Does the U.S. Postal Money Order have to be signed by me? Say I didn't sign them before depositing them... do I have some sort of immunity to the law?

3) How the hell am I responsible? First of all, I had no clue about scams such as these... AMERICA IS A FRIEKEN JOKE - you're going to say it's that big of a problem and not educate anyone? Yea, you can search it online and find it, but obviously no one will do that because they'd realize they were being scammed. I've never, ever, heard of this scam... my bank CLEARLY has heard of it because they asked me what happened after and then when I started my story, they read my mind because they're CLEARLY aware of this one; AWARE ENOUGH TO SAY THAT AFTER BUT NOT EVEN GIVE ME A WARNING BEFORE DEPOSITING IT? If you're aware of this scam and see me trying to deposit 4 of these and then wanting to withdraw, wouldn't you say something? I THINK THAT'S CALLED NEGLIGANCE?

And what the hell is wrong with the government... do they go after these scammers or not? If not, that's ridiculous... then what am I to do? How can they not have any authority in Nigeria? They clearly have enough power to go in and raid suspected scammers' locations... ugh, nothing.

I swear, from now on, I will trust very few people. I will deal with banks as little as possible. The law... that's a joke - any time any of these agencies or anyone in law enforcement need help or donations I will laugh at them... if I see a CIA agent or FBI agent lying almost dead and begging for help, I'll walk right by them. I hate people - you claim you WARN about these scams (clearly not enough when I never heard of it) and yet don't do crap about it.

The government, law enforcement agencies, banks, and all these stupid companies are just as bad... ridiculous.

I literally now have no energy, desire, or anything to even live... I get screwed, and I'm responsible and am left helpless... AWESOME WORLD.

I am sorry to hear that you have become the victim of this scam. I am going to move your message to the counterfeit money orders section of this board, since that is the type of scam that you were actually the victim of (not 419)



The scammer tells you who to wire the money to . . . they are either working together or they are one in the same person (they use LOTS of fake names)



Okay . . . if you did not sign the check you MIGHT have something to fight your bank with. They should not deposit something that was not signed, but that does not change that the money order was counterfeit.



I agree with you that this seems like negligance on the banks part. You would think that people who deal wih money all day would be better trained in spotting a counterfeit check and stopping their customers from becoming victims. The bad part is that when you open an account, in the small print on the documentaion that you sign, there is legal stuff to protect the bank that basically says that the customer is liable for any documents that they deposit.

If it was a bounced personal check, they could go after the bank of the person who wrote the check to you, but in this case the "bad guys" are in another country so they are going after you to get the money back.

I would suggest that you write a letter of summary of your story and send it to the resources listed on our website (go to the first page of ScamVictimsUnited.com where it says "victims start here")

Also, if you search the message board for the letter writing campaign you can join us by sending your letter to members of the media to try and get more attention to these scams.

Also be aware of a similar scam on Roommates.com. I was ALMOST a victim as well. They sent me 3 money orders for $980. It was supposedly an overpayment and I was to send $2000 back to them to pay for the flight to the US. They are using the name Linda Bell out of Manchester, England.

You asked about Gerrard Street. I'm sorry to say two things about this location in London. One is that I don't believe the address & post code go together (Gerrard is post code W1D). The other is that 44 Gerrard Street is the location of one certain Loon Fung Supermarket, in the heart of our China Town district.