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Trina Sonnenberg

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RED ALERT! Check Scam
9/25/2007 2:43:13 PM
Recently, I was offered a job with John Holland Gifts. I was supposed to be a financial go-between for his company, which I was told, is located in the U.K.. I was to receive checks from U.S. clients, cash them, and keep 10%, and to wire the balance to John Holland Gifts. I played along.



Well, to my surprise, I was never asked for any private information, and I received an envelope from someone in New York, via UPS. (Earlier I was contacted by phone and informed that I would be receiving a check to cash.) So, when I opened the envelope, I was not too surprised to see a check inside; it was made out for $1,290.00. (I never planned to cash it. It smelled of scam as soon as I read the first email.)

Okay, now here's the good part... The envelope was sent from someone in New York, but the check was from someone in Texas. Since it was drawn on a bank I recognized, Wells Fargo, I called them to inquire about it.

I gave the woman on the phone, the account number on the bottom of the check, and low and behold the account was not an active account! Can you believe it? I can.

Since everyone has been warned not to give out private information on the Internet, these scambags are now trying to get innocent people to cash bad checks for them and send them a cash wire.

I guess when P.T. Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute, he wasn't talking about the minute I was born.

So all of you nice people out there, don't fall for this scam. If someone asks you to cash checks for them, DO NOT DO IT! If you do, you'll end up losing your account with your bank, and the Feds will look into your life; you will be held accountable for the funds.

This is the information I have on the scammer that I encountered, as he presented it to me:

John Holland
johnhollandarts@yahoo.co.uk
Mr John Holland
John Holland Arts & Gifts
Unit B, The Apsley Center, Apsley way, London
NW2 7LZ
U.K

Immediately you are through with the western union transfer, get back to me with following details: Sender's name and address (as used to to fill the western union form ): Total Amount Sent: Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN) I hope i am able to make things clear to you. Let me know if there is anything that is not clear to you. Do reply this email to confirm that you recieve it. Thanks and God bless, waiting to hear from you...... Mr John Holland

Copyright © 2007
The Trii-Zine Ezine
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About the Author:
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg
Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine - Your Trusted Source for Internet Business and Marketing Information. Serving online professionals since 2001. ISSN# 1555-2276
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Author of: My Journey A Lifetime of Verse http://stores.lulu.com/triizine
Keywords: scams, check fraud, check cashing scams
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg Freelance Commercial Writer TLC Promotions & The Trii-Zine Ezine ISSN 1555-2276 http://www.tlcpromotions.net http://trii-zine.com http://FAA.tlcpromotions.net
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Re: RED ALERT! Check Scam
9/25/2007 6:35:18 PM

Trina,

You are one smart gal, and you did good!

Thanks for the heads up on this!

 

 

James Kinney The Cardioman Cardio Cocktail www.drinkcardiococktail.com/30724 Joint Cocktail:www.formor.com/30724 Check My Home Page http://www.viradyne.com/moneypartners
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Beryl Payton

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Re: RED ALERT! Check Scam
9/26/2007 12:06:48 AM

Hi Trina,

I am familiar with this one.  But I did nothing but turned it over to the local police.  Then about a week later receive 6 money orders via ups, totally 3500 dollars, that they wanted me to cash and send the money through western union and call in the same info they asked you for.  It was drawn on Bank One from Minnesota, I turned these over to the police also after calling Bank One and finding out they were stolen.

Beryl

This Is The Healthy Lifestyle Feature-rich Information Website - Family Owned and Operated Vial Virtual Solutions Helping Business to Achieve Their Dreams
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Re: RED ALERT! Check Scam
9/26/2007 6:39:43 PM

Hi Trina:

Several years ago our radio station got an email like your, well kind of. The person wanted to purchase an item we were offering on ebay. We emailed them back and told them to make the payment via paypal. Weeks went by and then, magically, we were sent a letter from this person via snail mail telling us they wanted to buy the item with the enclosed check and that since it was over the amount requested, to just deduct the cost of the item and then along with the item, send them back the balance.

Normally, we would have considered doing. However, the item only sold for $50.00 US and the check was for $4,000 You read that correctly $4,000.

This check was also drawn on Wells Fargo.

We reported the incident and I took the check, cut it up into quarter sections and created an art piece titled " UK SCAMM 101. I placed it for sale on ebay a month ago. So far, no takers. :)

You are so right when you say:

" ..all of you nice people out there, don't fall for this scam "

Thank you for sharing,

Joe Buccheri

TGAMM FM Radio

 

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Trina Sonnenberg

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Re: RED ALERT! Check Scam
9/28/2007 4:59:42 PM
UPDATE:

Apparently the U.S. Secret Service is handling scams like these. Regardless of where they say they are from, it is 99% certain that they're really in Nigeria.

I received a second check yesterday.

When they make phone calls to the people who they send checks to, they use disposable (pre-paid cell phones) phones so that the calls cannot be traced, and the caller is usually inside the U.S..

The Secret Service says to either take the checks to the police department, or to your local bank and tell the bank that they are bad checks. They will dispose of them as required.

I noticed that on the first check I received, that the person making out the check was located in: Forth Worth, Texas. Now, I think every U.S. resident knows that there is no such place. The correct town is Fort Worth. On this check, the name of the town was misspelled twice! In the business name and in the address of the business. What a riot!

The second check I received was from California, but it had the same signature on the bottom, as the first check.

Are people that ignorant, greedy, or blind that they don't pick up on these things? I mean come on...

Trina

Trina L.C. Sonnenberg Freelance Commercial Writer TLC Promotions & The Trii-Zine Ezine ISSN 1555-2276 http://www.tlcpromotions.net http://trii-zine.com http://FAA.tlcpromotions.net
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