Unwittingly of course.
There was this job opportunity from careerbuilder.com where I applied for an administrative position. I received a response from someone, who goes by the name “Toni Dove,” and needed a personal assistant to help with some things for her art gallery.
Initially it looks legit, I googled Toni Dove and she is an artist in the city. As well as the job description sounded mundane: purchasing supplies for the studio, calling customers to collect payments, etc…
And all from home?!
So “Ms. Dove” mails me a packet which I received today, and inside contained a check, with her instructions to cash it and IMMEDIATELY deduct $500 for myself as a weekly payment then to wire the rest via Western Union to SOS Children’s Villages Yemen.
Oh no, blood money!
As you can see by the image posted, the check looks very real. But computers have come a long way since the 90′s; today anybody can print their own checks. So I call Delta Community Credit Union, where the check was supposedly issued.
I asked, ” Is there a way to verify a check issued by your bank? Whether the account number is valid…or maybe the check number?”
At first the lady said no, but after some more questions she transferred me to the credit union’s rep and I gave him the check number and the amount. He could not give me any private information, but said that the check ‘had been issued and cleared already, and that it was for a different amount.’
He couldn’t tell me more than that, but boy that was all I needed to know. And what YOU need to know is this: knowingly or not, if you cash a fraudulent check you are RESPONSIBLE for the money that the bank cleared. Meaning, paying back the bank for issuing the funds and even legal consequences (yes, you can be charged with a crime, even if you were scammed).
Nowadays, even bank tellers can’t know right away if a check is fake when they accept it for deposit. The appearance may be realistic, such as watermarks and the back for endorsement. The account/routing numbers may be real too, in fact the check may have even came directly from the bank’s drawers . BUT someone– ANYONE who saw the check, may have wrote down the check number and account number and then created a copy at home…or at the secret warehouse.
At least now the bank and the FTC know the check is stolen.
The address that was used to mail this document probably came from a victim, whose address is now unwittingly the “sender of fake checks” and now my home address may be used for this too. Also, I’m assuming that the real Toni Dove did not contact me nor put up a posting for this “job.”
Hhhmmm…not the greatest week ending with this pile of shit, which makes stepping on a real pile of shit like winning the lottery.
But I have some light at the end of this shit-swamp story…
Next week, I am having a guest contributor who will post his version of “What makes a woman seductive and attractive.” The kicker here is that I would like a reader to write a counter blog post. Please email me your articles, and the chosen lucky winner will be mailed a gift card or for my international readers a cash payment via Paypal (I swear, I will never mail you a check!), gift card and Paypal payment will be in the amount of $20.
And hey, at least I wasn’t cat-fished…
