Check Mule Arrested

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Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:08 am

Innocent people get burned. Evil or Very Mad

Woman Gets Two Years

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:06 am

Innocent?
"They would send their names as well as fake documents that looked like Wal-Mart money orders, Bank of America checks, U.S. Postal Service checks and American Express traveler's checks to Fiedler. They told her how to fill out the checks and where to send them."
Some cheque mules may be innocent dupes, but how could she have thought that what she was doing was legal?

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:23 am

I like how postal investigators intercepted $2.1 Billion in fake mailings.

How do these people not know? --> How can anyone believe these lads in the first place?

It happens and someone has to pay the price. Fair or not, it's a fine line and we all have our opinions one way or another. They are victims themselves in many 'innocent mule' cases, but they did help steal $XXX,XXX+ and are taking a piece of the pie so to speak...

I don't agree with jail time, but maybe an hour of community service for every $1,000 moved? And any money kept as their 'fee' would have to be returned as well.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

Cashing a check = victim.
Sending checks to victims for a cut of the proceeds knowing the check is fake = lad

Based on that very simple principle Edna Fiedler = ladette.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:13 pm

I agree she looks like a willing Mule.

Some mules dont know its "illegal" and think they are doing a job for a company. (People are surpsingly stupid)

Though I have never seen "fake lottery tickets" coming out of lagos. Many many years ago ive seen the fake scratch tickets for the old canadan lotto scams but that was way before this site even existed bt at least 10+ years Smile

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:58 pm

I gave the benefit of the doubt that she might have thought that she was employed in a legal business. Not everyone knows the laws. If she was willing participating, then she deserves to be punished for her crime.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:12 pm

IF she was writing checks for one "employer", I could believe she was an innocent dupe. Writing checks etc on behalf of Wal-Mart, Bank of America, the U.S. Postal Service, and American Express, is much harder to believe.

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:24 pm

Well yes, for me too, but some people don't have the brain capacity to figure that out. My first remark of "innocent" is probably very incorrect; however, it is difficult to mentally convict someone when I haven't seen all of the evidence.

Two is pretty light for the scam being totally known to her, but it's hard to tell about sentences these days.

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

Quote:

The recipients most likely thought they were helping out someone who needed a person in the U.S. to cash a check for them, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They were able to get the money by cashing the checks, and sent most of it to either Fiedler or her Nigerian accomplices. However, once the checks were discovered to be fake, the people who cashed them were responsible for the full amount.

Those are the people I felt sorry for--the real innocent parties here.

Jail's a good place for her.

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:48 am

around here at least, ignorance of the law has never been an allowable defence.

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:25 am

Mr Tambourine Man wrote:

IF she was writing checks for one "employer", I could believe she was an innocent dupe. Writing checks etc on behalf of Wal-Mart, Bank of America, the U.S. Postal Service, and American Express, is much harder to believe.

I have had contact with victims who believe they have found a legitimate job providing such services. Believing the job is legit makes them more likely to take the next one that comes along. Multiple offers don't seem to make them suspicious, on the contrary, they only reinforce their belief that they have hooked into an easy way to earn a living.

It's also possible/likely that she believed the checks were from various customers of a single company.

I don't deny that she could have know that she was engaged in illegal activities, but I don't believe it is possible to know her frame of mind from that article.

No need to take my word for it, the article itself states that mules are often unaware they are breaking the law:

The Yahoo Article wrote:

At a recent conference in Seattle, a representative from the U.S. Postal Service and Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna described ways they're working to shut down these kinds of scams, particularly because they often involve people who don't realize that they're taking part in illegal activities.

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

The article from Seattle Times has a bit more information:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/355544_checkscam19.html

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 5:41 am

^^ That article sheds a whole different light on things. Apparently she actually was aware that what she was doing is illegal.

So much for giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Two years is still too light.

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:39 am

I'm quite sure that many (most?) don't realise they are doing anything illegal. I don't think she is one of them though.
I expect the short sentence is due to a plea bargain.