I had not heard about this scam before. Time to pass on the warning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pud333
There was another situation where a couple had an apartment for rent. The potential renter from London, England sent them a cheque for $3,000. A couple days later, he emailed them to tell them he had a change of plans, so for their troubles, they could keep $800 and send him the rest. Red flags: 1) Why was a guy from London paying them with an RBC cheque? 2) Why did he request them send the money back to him through Western Union? The couple had their suspicions, but did it anyway. Needless to say, after they sent them the money, the cheque bounced, and they were short part of their mortgage payment.
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On a similar note: A few years ago, we were moving to a new house and selling off a bunch of stuff on kijiji. I got so many responses from people offering to buy items and overpay for shipping. I was then going to have to send the back the difference. One "cheque" I received was for $5000 for a couple hundred dollar purchase. It was my mission to collect as many of these cheques as possible (I think I got 5 or so). I had no intention of ever cashing any of them, but it was fun to go through the motions with them.
I eventually tried contacting one of those fraud hotlines (fraudbusters?... I can't remember the name) with all of the info I had collected and basically told there was nothing they would do.
Some of these fraudsters are pretty good at what they do. I have to give them credit for that. I do find it sad that people do fall for their tricks though.
If it is too good to be true...
