Need a lawyer to advice on this one plz?

Question

Okay, I sell things on ebay and craigslist. So its no surprise that I was expecting a check in the mail for a sell I closed a few days ago. Today, U.P.S shows up and I get what looks like a certified check in a U.p.s. envelope but not from anyone I am expecting.

Instead of the $200 I'm expecting from a buyer for my xylophone it looks like a certified check for $2,350. I've researched check scams today and there is always a case where a unknown 3rd party benefits from the delivery of the check. However this is not the case. Its a check through Bank of America from a Computershare Inc. So, if the check is fake, I know I will find out easy at bank of america. My question is, what if it isn't fake. What are my rights for protection should the money be asked back and can they even ask for their money back in the legal since. Because this check was sent to me, addressed to me. Moral Ethics aside, seems to me if its good, then it belongs to me. Plz advice ASAP, as my girlfriend isn't as cautious as I am and wants to cash the check. Also sight specific literature and statutes. Thank you.

Answer 1

100% scam.



There is no buyer.



There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.



He is not interested in your identity or bank account, only your cash.



The check WILL bounce, it is fake, even if the bank teller can't tell, it is FAKE.



The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send the money via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "shipping company". When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.



Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.



Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.



You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.



Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.



Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.



If you google "fake check scam", "fake paypal buyer fraud" or something similar and you will find hundreds of posts of victims and near victims of this type of scam.

Answer 2

It IS fake. You would not receive a check from Computershare unless you cashed out a 401k plan you held with them. They would not be paying you for an item on Craiglist - that would be illegal



If the check is either stolen or counterfeit using a real account number, even Bank of America won't know it. That's why it takes weeks for a check to bounce. As long as the counterfeiters use a real account number (which they do) and there is money in the account (which there will be in a major company like Computershare) the check will clear. It will not bounce until the cancelled check is sent back to Computershare's accounting department and they are balancing their books at month end. Then the accountant will see that they have NO record of writing this check, they inform the bank and the bank immediately debits $2350 from your account - and closes your acount



Contact the Computershare office the check was drawn on

http://www-us.computershare.com/contactus/phone.asp and ask to speak to their accounts department. Tell them you are not one of their customers but you received one of their checks for $2350 and don't know what it is for. They will let you know if it's really from them or it's counterfeit



There is a warning on the Scamwarners site about counterfeit checks being issued in Computershare's name http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1562&sid=9c9fbc7c55cda111803c6c33fda514e2



Even if this case were not a scam, the money doesn't belong to you. If you were expecting $200 and mistakenly got $2350 you have to pay back the difference or it's considered a breach of contract if you agreed to sell for $200. It's like if your paycheck said $30,000 instead of $3000 - you couldn't keep it. It might take a few months for accounting to discover the error but you will eventually have to pay back that $27,000.



EDIT - This is not a case of receiving something you did not order. This is a case of agreeing to sell an item at a certain price, then receiving a check for more than 11 times the agreed to sales price. This is either a genuine mistake or a counterfeit check, but it is not an unsolicited gift of money. If it were being sold in a store for $200 and someone gave you $2350 you would have to give them $2150 in change. There is no difference. When you agreed to sell the xylophone for $200 you entered into a contract to sell it for $200. That's all you can sell it for.

Answer 3

First, the law is pretty clear on this: If you receive something on the mail that you did not order, it is yours. I would suggest that you DO NOT deposit this in your personal account. Take it to your bank and have them hold the funds until the funds, not the check, clears. Usually what happens is that people get something like this and run to the bank and cash it. The check clears and they get the money. Then the funds to cover the do not clear so the bank debits your account. The other thing is if you deposit this in your account, the person that wrote the check, legal or not, now has or can get your account number. The fact that it is a cashiers check, your bank should do this for you.

Answer 4

The law is slightly murky. If they truly wrote you a check (a real check, not one that looks real), then it may be considered an unrecoverable gift. But they didn't decide to be generous and then change their mind. They made a mistake. They could sue you for unjust enrichment to recover the money.



But this all legal theory. The check is almost certainly fake, and you will be charged by your bank when it comes back.



Companies do not get cashier's checks to send random people without enclosing a copy of the invoice they are paying.

Answer 5

I am sorry to hear about your husband. There are 'divorce' groups at local 'womens centers' all over the US. They can answer some of the immediate questions you have. I also made the decision to divorce my husband (who kept forgetting what a marriage was) after working thru my situation with a 'women's divorce group' in the town I lived in. It was made up of women going through the same kinds of problems. Also look up Legal Aid in your area. They take cases on sliding scale cost. In most states, if the husband files for divorce, he pays for the wife's attorney (or at least a portion). Talk with your local Family Service Department. They can possibly help you financially until you are on your feet. Good luck.

Answer 6

The check is not good. The fact that it says Bank of America is immaterial. You have no rights for protection of any sort. If you or your girlfriend are stupid enough to cash this check, you deserve any consequences that follow.

Answer 7

The money is not yours under any circumstance.