COLUMN: Seem too good to be true? It probably is
There I was, in my office on the third floor of the TSC. I’m between appointments, minding my own business, working on the Sudoku puzzle in The Statesman. As I’m working the puzzle, a lengthy classified ad for a job catches my eye. The ad went something like this: “We are a company that sells a product (I don’t remember exactly what it was). Our customers place orders, the merchandise is delivered and inspected. Payment is made through a third party who cashes the customer’s check and forwards the money.” The catch was that this company’s customers prefer to pay with certified checks through third parties. The ad went on assuring that you never have to sell anything and you never have to interface with the end buyer of the company’s product. The company offers students a job acting as the third party who receives the customer’s checks, forwards 90 percent of the proceeds and keeps 10 percent of the sale price. The 10 percent is your compensation for the work of cashing the check and forwarding the balance.
I couldn’t believe what I was reading! Right there in The Utah Statesman, a classified ad for a scheme to rip off unsuspecting students. I’d already planned to write an article warning you all – that plan grew out of yet another experience. Last year, a student came to meet with me. Over summer break, she had responded to an e-mail offering to pay 10 percent of the cover for cashing a cashier’s check. All she had to do was take the check, which she would receive in the mail, to a local bank, cash the check, forward 90 percent of the face value to a bank through a wire transfer and keep 10 percent. Simple, right? Wrong!
The student was meeting with me because she had been contacted by the bank where she had cashed the checks. They were forgeries and the bank wanted their $20,000 back. The question was, “Do I have to pay the $20,000?” the answer was, “Yes.” You can only imagine the pain and suffering brought on by that painful reality. I went on to explain that the Internet is being used to hook unsuspecting people into this check-cashing fraud.
I was explaining the gist of this article to a friend who sells items on e-bay and he related to me that he had run into the same scam. The purported buyer was offering to pay a price substantially higher than what he requested. All my friend, the seller, had to do was take payment and forward a substantial portion of the sale price, keeping far more money than he was originally asking for sale of the item. He related that it sounded “fishy” and he refused the sale. He went on, telling me, that in his efforts to sell items on e-bay, this scam was attempted on two occasions.
Scam artists are using the Internet, classified ads and other means to lure unsuspecting victims. They use the ruse of easy money. All you have to do is cash a check and forward most of the proceeds. Sounds easy enough. But stop and ask yourself, why isn’t the company (person) taking payment directly, or why does this company (person) need me to cash a check for them? Banks are everywhere. Take my advice, if this company (person) lives where there is no bank, they don’t need one. If this person cant’ get a bank to cash a check for them, there is a reason: they are dishonest.
Many of these miscreants are so skilled at producing forged checks – bank checks, cashiers checks, etc. – that bank professionals can not tell them from genuine negotiable instruments. However, once you pass a check, if it is a forgery, you are 100 percent liable for the face value of the forged instrument. You will receive a letter from the bank demanding payment. If you don’t contact the bank and make arrangements to pay off the balance, the bank will take you to court, via a law suit and get a judgment against you. Non-payment will sink your credit rating with lasting consequences.
A wise Alaska state trooper once told me, “The first casualty of greed is the truth.” In this case the scam artist is trying to lure you into thinking you can make a fast and easy buck without having to earn it. It’s your greed that is being tempted. If you give into the lure of easy money, you will fall prey to the scam. All scam artists use a person’s greed against them. Once you want to make a quick buck, or make money without earning it (even if it’s just a little easy money), you are subject to being scammed.
Remember, there are ways to detect the scam. Call our bank and ask to speak with a financial adviser. They have heard and seen mostly everything and will be a source of sound advice. Call and talk to a parent. Their life experience can save you from financial disaster. Find someone in their 40s or 50s and ask their advice, a church leader, an academic adviser, some trusted adult with no vested interest in whether or not you participate in the venture (not a person trying to get you to get involved in the scam – they have a vested interest, that is, they want your money). By the way, three 19-year-olds do not collectively make a 57-year-old. So, going to your roommates isn’t the best way to solve the conundrum of whether you should, or should not, get involved in a major financial deal, and anything more than $100 is, on a student’s budget, a major financial deal.
I hope this article prevents you from becoming a victim. Remember, the old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Bruce Ward is a prosecutor in the Cache County Attorney’s office. He is available evenings for consultations with students in his office on the third floor of the TSC.