ScamVictimsUnited.com

They were probably going to contact you and then convince you that the money orders were for someone else and would you cash them and wire them to the correct person? There are many ways that this particular scam works. It's a good thing that people on your end were clued into it enough to check it out. It's nice to see a financial institution working to protect the customer. Maybe now they'll all eventually follow suit. This is exactly what needs to be done to combat this problem by nipping it in the bud "before" someone becomes a victim.

My first guess is that the scammer was in contact with someone who is a scam baiter . . . scam baiters basically make a hobby out of responding to a scammer and letting them think that they are a person who is willing do go through with the deal. The baiter will then give the scammer an address to send the checks to (sometimes they just make one up, sometimes they use a real one . . . I know some that give the address of the police department, FBI or Secret Service!)

So my guess is that your address got randomly used as the fake address given out by a baiter, and now when that scammer responds to them asking about the checks the baiter will say "I never got them" and maybe even ask them to send more.

My second guess would be that they were actually in contact with someone who lives near you and they just got the address wrong. It might be wise to talk to your neighbors and make sure that they know about this scam and are not about to become a victim.



because the scammer thinks they are talking to a potential victim, and the baiter is happy because they know that they are wasting the scammers time and money . . . and if the scammer is busy sending emails and money orders to the baiter, it is a little less time that they could potentially be finding a REAL victim.



That would be nice, but not very likely. Most of the people operating these rings are overseas. If there really was a person in Oakland California connected with these checks my guess is that they are being used by a scammer as a middle-man. Often scammers will meet people on dating sites and then ask them if they would be willing to help them out by distributing money orders for them . . . the scammer sends them to the person they are "dating", that person is given directions on who to forward the money orders on to. Another version of this is a work at home scam . . . the scammer puts out an ad saying that their accounting department needs someone to distribute funds for them . . . again, the scammer sends the money orders to this "employee" and directs them who to forward the checks on to.

hey thanks for all the potential explanations.

I have turned the money orders over to the police who have asked me to make sure I turn over any further correspondences to them which I will of course do.

I hope some of these people get caught, a lot of the people they try to scam are people that have hit rock bottom and are looking for anything to give them a little hope and these people feed off of that and that just burns my biscuits!

Hi, I'm a columnist for The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash.
One of our readers has gotten about 75 calls from people who have received UPS Express envelopes containing three $915 Wal Mart moneygrams. The sender is listed as Anita Williams or Anita Jones. The phone number and address are in Tacoma, but do not belong to Williams or Jones.
I have been trying to reach people at the numbers our reader took down.
They have various stories - a roommate scam, a past bad experience on internet auctions.
Some of the envelopes came with nothing but the checks inside, no note, no nothing.
I will be meeting with the public information officer with the Sheriff's Department Friday morning and would like to have as much info on this scam as possible.
If you have any idea what is going on here, if you have been scammed this way, please leave a post here or e-mail me through the link below. Truly, we in the media do want to help bust the scammers.
Best,
Kathleen

[ Since my original post I have been the target of a couple mroe scammers, all of them different. I received a UPS envelope just days after the fedex one from someone who decided to send everything anonomously. This person sent a letter stating that they were a distant relative of mine and that they wanted to leave me with their funds before they die. This person sent me 14 cashiers checks for $4999.99a piece...I called the bank the checks were supposedly from and verified that the checks were indeed fake so I handed this set over to the police too.

Less then a week later I saw an ad in the help wanted section of the classifieds that said they were hiring for a customer service representative so I called the number and asked for an application. The lady that answered the phone said I would receive an information packet and referrals application within 2-3 days so I waited. When I got it I found a letter stating that I had been hired as a "Decret Shopper" and that my first assignment was a test of my ability. That forst assignment was to take a cashier's check that was made out for over six thousand dollars to my bank and cash it, then call them to let them know I had cashed it. Afterwards I was to go to wal-mart and purchase a $5000 moneygram for a "Relayive in Quebec" Keep the leftover money and send the purchased moneygram back to the people that sent it to me.

I called the number of the bank that was written on the check and fot an answer, I was put on hold for a few seconds and then told that the cashier's check was valid and the funds were available. I got excited and very nearly fell for it. Instead I was still slightly suspicious and decided to look up the bank online, the number I found for it was completely different and their website actually had warnings all over it about attempting to cash cashiers checks from the exact people I got mine from. they also educate the public on the fact that they do not even issue cashier's checks.

I turned the letter, envelope, check, everything over to the police again...I sincerely hope people stop trying to scam me because this is utterly heart breaking. We're not wealthy folk and we're about to lose our house so the prospect of a good amount of money gets our hopes up a lot more then it should, only to be shattered in the end...I think that is these scammer's game...they are out to tear down the hopes of everyone they come into contact with so that they can miserable with others.

I hope these posts have helped someone avoid being scammed.

Sincerely,
Garnet

That's terrible, Garnet.
I am so sorry you are losing the house, which make this scam especially cruel.
Could you please e-mail me at the paper?
To make you feel more comfortable, please check o ut the Web site: thenwestribune.com.
Click onto news and columnists, and I hope you' ll be reassured I'm legit.
Kathleen

Never ever use the contact number printed on any check, many times the scammer place their own number on the checks.

You can look up the area code on google, and it will be based out of Canada, some of the later checks actually have a 866 or 877 area code, these are bad numbers as well.

Be careful with ANY check your receive in the mail. Many couterfeits out there!

Look up the bank on the net, use that contact information, tell the bank you received a check in the mail and your are concerned it is counterfeit. Be sure to mention your concerns, this will alert the bank to do a little further investigation.

garnetcox -

I am so sorry to ready the ordeal that you have been going through! I feel that your story just goes to show the lengths that the scammers will go to in order to try and make some easy money.

So many of the scams out there . . . romance/dating scams, work at home scams, roommate scams . . . basically come back in some way to the basic idea behind the counterfeit cashier's check scam that hit us in 2002, the scammers are just finding new ways to "get to" the potential victims.


kmerryman -

I would be glad to speak with you about some of the common threads between all of these scams. I just recently gave a presentation at the National Center for Victims Of Crime's national conference in Washington, DC in which I spoke about these common threads and how the scams are evolving in order to catch new victims. Feel free to PM me so that we can exchange contact information and set up a time to talk.