Work From Home: These scams have been running for decades, and still people fall for them. They are the same as if you saw a sign on the side of the road: Hiring Now. (Phone number) $1000 to $2000 a week. -- They are the same as those rackets that lure college-age people in to go out and sell magazine subscriptions, to earn money towards college tuition. -- You cannot warn people enough!!!!!!
There are two steps:
1. Your bank "clears" the check, and pays you out of their own funds relatively quickly. They apply to the issuing bank to get reimbursed.
2. The check is then "paid" (or not "paid"). In other words, your bank does or does not get reimbursed. This is the part that takes some time.
If the check is unpaid by the originating bank, your bank tells you the check bounced, and you are liable for at least the face value of the check.
Read this ... carefully!
http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnwin0607/scams.html
Extract:
"In these cases, the depositor most likely will be held responsible for the entire amount of the fraudulent check."
Instead of cashing the check, or sending it back, take it and the envelope in which it came to the post office. They will use it as evidence and pursue the scammer.
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Please reply to this post, to let us know you read it, or have taken suitable actions to protect yourself.
If you receive an email or letter in the post / regular mail saying you won a lottery and they send you a check? Or you sold something on Ebay and the buyer paid with a check? Or you took out a loan from a distant or online bank and they sent you a check? You can just take the check to your bank and cash it right?
WRONG! And what is worse, if you cash it, in most states in the US, you may be guilty of passing a counterfeit check, money laundering or worse. Clark Howard did a piece on his radio show about a man in California who was arrested for cashing a bogus check. In other words, by merely attempting to cash the check, you could go to federal prison!
Sending fake checks through the mail is a crime so contact the US Postal Service Inspectors:
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx
https://www.usps.com/
>> I can't see how it can take weeks to be sent back. <<
Please re-read the info in the link I provided. Pay particular attention to the sentence, " it can take a couple of weeks or longer before the bank discovers that the deposited check is worthless."
It is always important to conceptualize the facts, rather than one's mistaken assumptions.
I text them and here is the replay. Good Morning, I will like you to know your first assignment is in the mail and will deliver to you through UPS. Here is the tracking # 1ZR467W10142489491. Once you have it in your possession, head to your bank and deposit it take out your first week payment of $250 and then remit the rest to this agent through western union/Moneygram money transfer.