I recently had an experience with a scammer contacting my mother saying she had won a million-dollar prize and a new car. The person continued to call her and befriend her for several days in a row, also telling her not to tell anyone. My mother received 3 checks in the mail totaling over $10,000.00. I saw a picture of the checks and they looked very real. I googled the information on the check and the person was real and the bank and address were also correct. I did alert the bank that my mother was going to deposit them.
They advised her that it was a scam, and they would not accept the checks. What would have happened is the scammer would have asked for a gift card or money back from part of the deposit and the bank must make the funds available to the account holder within a couple of days. It might take the bank a week or more to discover the fake check, but the account holder is then responsible to repay the bank for the funds. A lot of the fake check scams come from employment offers as well, I was recently told that someone was contacted to do paid reviews for Yelp, but Yelp has a policy of not paying people for reviews. I think in these situations it is best to go with your gut feeling and to have a conversation with your banker before depositing checks that come from a company that you are unsure of their intentions. I found the picture above on the Better Business Bureau website where they have an in-depth article about fake check scams. Please share your story so we as a community can be well informed of the ongoing scams.
Terri Proctor/Founder
Stop Elderly Scams