With scam artists becoming more creative nowadays, finding new ways to trick you out of your money, you should always stay alert so you don’t become a victim. One of the biggest kinds of frauds being committed today is the fake check scam. There are various ways for this scam to be pulled off, but in all scenarios, it only takes a gullible individual to make it successful.
The Method of Operation
Here’s how a fake check scam generally goes. You receive notification by mail claiming that you won something, or that they have the perfect job for you. The scammers will then forward a check to you, which you should then deposit in your own account. Usually, the cash for pay-out stated in the check is more than what you’re supposed to get. The trick is for them to tell you that you should get only the amount due you, then wire the rest of the funds to another account by money wire transfer.
It all sounds feasible and viable. After all, you already have the check deposited in your account. For you to wire the “excess” funds, you’ll just have to shell out your own money in the meantime. Once the check clears, you would have gotten back the cash you sent out. Supposedly.
The thing is, with scams like this, you wouldn’t really know that the check is a fake until the money has indeed been thoroughly examined by the bank. Take note that discovering a forgery may take weeks. By the time the scam is found out, your cash would have been hundreds and thousands of miles away from you already. In the end, you will be left with a deficit in your account, and the possibility of being accused of fraud by your own bank.
By and large, this definitely does not seem like a good situation at all, no matter which angle you take it from. The long and short of the story is that you shouldn’t be so easily swayed into believing such good fortune. If a deal seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Protective Measures
It’s not to say that all notifications of good luck – such as winning a lottery or being offered a most fantastic job online – is never bound to happen. It’s just that you have to exercise due diligence on your own part to guarantee your own safety and security.
Based on the scenario depicted above, you obviously will be in for a whole lot of trouble if you become a victim. For one, the banks will not take too kindly to the fact that you took out cash with a fraudulent check. With such scenarios being on the rise, they can be quite unforgiving with instances like this, with you being left to explain what really went wrong.
Aside from that, however, you may also be invariably exposing yourself to identity theft. Some scammers will ask you for your account, supposedly so they can complete the transaction with you. Common sense should tell you that you should not be divulging sensitive information, such as your bank account, to any random person. Ideally, they should have no business having your account details. Unfortunately, there are still some people who are taken by smooth-talk by these professional scammers. So they give out their bank account details only to find out later that their identities have been stolen to perpetuate more fraud.
On the defense
If you have, at any time, entrusted your bank account details to anyone, you should be regularly checking your credit score. This is the next best thing you can do to protect yourself from identity theft, should you become a victim of it.
Running a credit check should be no problem, anyway. There are authorized and legitimate credit checking bureaus that can provide you with the information you need. At the first instance of suspicious activity, you can then report this red flag to the relevant authorities and your own banking institution. It’s a reactive mechanism, but it’s still much better than not being in the know at all. It’s not going to be pretty when you wake up one day to find out that your bank account had been emptied out.
Knowing the enemy
For you to better prevent fake credit scams, you should know how to spot one. Here are some situations that you may find yourself in. If you do, be on the alert, it just might be fraud waiting to happen.
1. Dream online job
No need to go to the office, just go online and be an “account manager” for a major international distributor. Your responsibility will only be handling remittances. Receive checks, deposit to your own account, subtract your fee, and pass the money on through wire transfer.
2. Overpayment
In case you own an online retail shop, be wary of clients sending you overpayment via checks. Usually, they will claim a sense of urgency so that you don’t wait for the check to clear and instead send them the “extra” money back instead.
3. Sweepstakes/ Lottery
Congratulations! You’ve won in an international lottery, although you’ve never really entered one. But first, before you can collect your winnings, you should pay taxes to this certain account, as per policy of the sweepstakes institution. False. Only the government collects taxes for lottery winnings, and they do it after you’ve obtained them.
These are just examples of scenarios that could make you part of the victim statistics of fraudulent check scams. Again, it is ultimately up to you if you would allow yourself to be duped into believing that you won a huge amount of money through a questionable source. There are plenty of ways to verify the notifications you receive, anyway, such as by calling the official number of the institution, or checking their official website. As always, you should also get credit reports regularly, if only to make sure that your identity has not yet been stolen.
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