A new twist on the job scam?

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Master Baiter Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 136

I have been baiting a lot of check scammers lately because of my new PO Box and the almost guaranteed trophies. Usually the check arrives and I tell the lads the check didn't clear and that will be the end of it. My most recent check bait the lad told me his customer messed up and sent me cash and I would need to send it back to him via Western Union. I was really nervous because I thought the lad had one of his victims sending me cash and now I would be involved. To my relief the package arrived and it was from Nigeria so I was pretty confident it wasn't from a victim. Inside the package contained (10) $100 Bills. The bills were good from far but far from good and were obviously counterfeits. I haven't seen this approach to a job scam before and was wondering if anyone else had?

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

That's a new one on me.

I can't remember seeing a lad sending counterfeit money before in a format like that, puts a whole new spin on things huh Shocked

I take it you handed the money over to LEO?

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:34 pm

Can you scan and post the pics? Especially if you took a super close up of one of the corners of the bill or something? That is a new one on me too.

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 136

@ Scam Patroller, I found this lad in a Yahoo Chat room actually. You seem to be able to find a whole different breed of lads there. I had another lad offer me a job in a Yahoo Chat but he wanted me to buy the blank checks, special ink, and mail them myself. I was thinking about turning the bills into LEO but I was nervous about them looking at me like a suspect. I'm guessing you think I should?

@ YeaWhatever, I will get some pics up tonight. They actually are pretty good for any fake bills I've seen before. They have a watermark and the strip going through them but their still easy to spot

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:38 pm

possibly hoping you'll wire the WU payment before attempting to put into the bank.
Wire him a fake one, and let the fun begin.

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 136

^^^ That's what I was thinking. The lad might actually believe the bills are that good though.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

DoctorPhil wrote:

I was thinking about turning the bills into LEO but I was nervous about them looking at me like suspect. I'm guessing you think I should?

Yes mate, as soon as possible, for all you know, the lad might be being monitored by LE or US Postal Service inspectors etc if he has done this before and been reported, and I'm sure you know it's a federal offence to be in posession of counterfeit money, LE wont be suspicious of you, after all, you are handing the stuff in and telling them how you received it.

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:43 pm

well don't correct him Wink

If they are quite obvious fakes, let him think they look fantastic. Can't have him catching on and making better ones.

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:53 pm

I've got a good number of fake checks but no fake cash.... I think I don't want any. I'd feel an urgent need to turn them in, which would lead to awkward questions.... but NOT turning them in would lead to questions that were much more awkward indeed.

I don't know, but I'll bet LE will be more interested in counterfeit cash than in fake checks. Still probably unable to do much about it if the cash is coming from Nigeria, though. One of our lawyerly types, is fake checks worse than fake checks?

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:56 pm

DoctorPhil wrote:

^^^ That's what I was thinking. The lad might actually believe the bills are that good though.

I doubt he'd have sent you them if he thought they were real.

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 136

@ ScamPatroller, I will have to muster up the courage but I will do it. Could I just destroy them or you think this is something they should really see?

@admiralross2400, I think this is one of the rare occasions that telling the lad might be helpful. I'm sure their are many people that wouldn't second guess the bills. Hopefully he will lose faith in his bills after repeated failure.

@FiveForces, the lad definitely knows they are fake but he might think they're good enough to fool Western Union agents

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

^^^^^ Destroy them if you want, but they might be of use to LE to connect similar cases they might be investigating. What's the worst that can happen, you hand them in, tell them you bait scammers, an Nigerian scammer sent them to you blah blah blah, they ask a few questions, not a thing they can do to you for that, that counterfeit money might have gone to an unsuspecting fraud victim if he had not sent it to you, the LE should give you a pat on the back, doubt they will, but they should Very Happy

, you could even put them in an envelope and hand them in anonymously with a note about where you got them from.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

You should definitely turn them in, the ones you have are probably not the only ones produced by whomever made them.
Wow. Counterfeit money. This just keeps getting more exciting.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 12:35 am

Scambaiting isn't illegal. Being in possession of forged banknotes is. I'd take them to LE too and tell them the truth. You never know, they might learn something Wink

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 2:01 am

DoctorPhil, Turn them in to LEO. Check to see if there is a US Secret Service field office near you. They may be able to pass the info to their field office in Nigeria (they have one there).

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 3:29 am

Click here to check out the Secret Service Website:

Quote:

KNOW YOUR MONEY
If You Receive a Counterfeit

* Do not return it to the passer.

* Delay the passer if possible.

* Observe the passer's description, as well as that of any companions, and the license plate numbers of any vehicles used.

* Contact your local police department or United States Secret Service field office. These numbers can be found on the inside front page of your local telephone directory.

* Write your initials and the date in the white border areas of the suspect note.

* Limit the handling of the note. Carefully place it in a protective covering, such as an envelope.

* Surrender the note or coin only to a properly identified police officer or a U.S. Secret Service special agent.

Counterfeit Note Report (self-executable form)

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 136

I found a Secret Service Office that is about 30 minutes from me so I will give them a call tomorrow. Hopefully they won't mind me just mailing them in. I took a few pictures but the quality isn't the best since I had to use my camera phone because I can't find the USB cord to my good camera. You can still see the watermark and the strip fairly well. The watermark if you noticed is much different then a real $100 but still looks like they knew what they were doing. The 100 in the bottom right corner is in green metallic ink as well. I will let you all know what the Service Service tells me to do with the bills tomorrow.

http://www.imagebucket.net/bucket/is.php?i=16954&img=pic5.JPG

http://www.imagebucket.net/bucket/is.php?i=16957&img=8614pic6.JPG

Master Baiter Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 170

Those are actually good enough fakes that I think they would pass a casual inspection. How do they feel though? Do they feel like real money?

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 136

They actually feel pretty good but slightly thinner and the color is slightly off.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 5:10 am

Those are good enought to fool most anyone (like my mother) till they get to the bank. Great that you are turning them in. Who knows this may be the tip of the iceburg and we will see much more of this in different types of scams. Where there is 10 bills there are 1000 more being passed.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:50 am

There is a serious problem with counterfeit US notes going on today. South Anerican and African operations are printing tons of the stuff. The Secret Service has ongoing operations around the world trying to stop these activities.

The reason so much effort is put into stopping counterfeit operations is this huge volume of bogus notes devalues our currency and weakens the dollar around the world.

What you have show how succesful they have been in defeating a few of the security features (watermark and stripe.) Fortunately, they don't have the paper to pull it off.

My suggestion is to turn it in to the Secret Service ASAP and give them all the information you can about where it came from. It may be just the clue they need to bust a big operation.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:08 am

Hi Doc,

Your lad wouldn't happen to represent Y33 Y0ung 1ndu5tr1@l would he?

As chance would have it, I've been offered payment in cash very very recently from this guy.

Cheers

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 1:12 pm

Seen it individually? Not yet, but I do recall reading a press release/news story some weeks ago warning about very good fake $100 bills form Nigeria. The story talked about a victim who (luckily) was warned by a friend that the whole deal he was involved with sounded dodgy. What was pretty scary was the fact that the bills were not only excellent fakes, they also "fooled" those little marking pens that many stores/banks use as a first line of defense against counterfeits.

Here it is.

http://www.kansas.com/212/story/58678.html

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 1:23 pm

I wonder what would happen if the lad sent those to someone outside the US and that person brought the bills to a currency exchange outlet somewhere like you often find in airports.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 2:19 pm

Click here to check out the Secret Service Website:

Quote:

KNOW YOUR MONEY
If You Receive a Counterfeit

* Do not return it to the passer.

* Delay the passer if possible.

* Observe the passer's description, as well as that of any companions, and the license plate numbers of any vehicles used.

* Contact your local police department or United States Secret Service field office. These numbers can be found on the inside front page of your local telephone directory.

* Write your initials and the date in the white border areas of the suspect note.

* Limit the handling of the note. Carefully place it in a protective covering, such as an envelope.

* Surrender the note or coin only to a properly identified police officer or a U.S. Secret Service special agent.

Counterfeit Note Report (self-executable form)

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