I received fake checks from someone in the US ..

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Posts: 1

I received a job offer and not knowing any better I accepted, I received a check from a legit company which I checked out, I brought it to my bank and told them the situation, and they had no problems, checked it out and cashed it. I waited a few days to make sure it was legit.. and obviously it wasn't...... It was sent overnight by UPS. Now I have this guy "Dr. Mike Johnson" who is in Nigeria threatening me saying he will call the FBI which I know isn't true, but I e-mailed someone who he CC'd the e-mail too and they wrote back, I traced their address and their "Friend who went to jail for not sending money back" and I have their locations.. after I emailed them the addresses I have they went away, but I want to know should I inform the police of this address? Or is it probably a fake one? I looked it up and the names at that address are some foreign names but I don't really know what to do.. I want the money back but I know these people are smart and probably have the addresses forwarded. Anybody have any advice on what to do?? Thank you!!

419Eater is my life Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 264

You definitely won't get the money back. The money didn't exist because it was drawn on a fake check. If you have addresses of someone here in the US that you think is working with the scammers then report it. It likely won't lead to much but it's worth reporting in the off chance they can be caught.

You are correct. The threat to report you to the FBI is just to scare you into sending the money before the check is returned as fake. You are also correct that the address you have is just a forwarding address. That's the scammers work. Either that or it's a victim who thinks they are working some kind of accounting job for the scammers by receiving checks and forwarding them.

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:54 am

Hi PSF and welcome to eater.

I'm afraid that you have been scammed and Matt is quite correct - the money is very probably gone, and there is a vanishingly small chance of ever bringing these slime to justice.

I would be surprised if the details you have are actually of the criminals who scammed you - they are usually careful to make sure that they cannot be traced by victims like yourself (although they are human - well, sort of - and do make mistakes). They will often work through innocent accomplices who post checks and collect the funds for a small percentage, sending the bulk of the funds via untraceable Western Union or Moneygram transfer to the real criminal, who may be in a different country (or even continent)

Can I suggest that you do three things?

www.scamwarners.com

Hope this helps, and you have my sympathy

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:02 am

Welcome to Eater, PSF. If you haven't done this already, clear things up with your bank. Presenting a fake check for payment is illegal, and you are on the hook for the money. If you just left it in your account, no doubt the bank took it back, but have a chat with the bank manager so that he or she know what is going on.

Also, you should sign up at ScamWarners.com as there are other victims of scams that might have experienced the same thing that you have. Victims support is available there also.

As I'm sure you know, it isn't a good idea to post personal information in an open public forum. You are welcome to PM any personal info that you think that we might need to know to me or another mod.

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