I've gotten rid of most of my rentals, but still have a couple. Some times it is easier to rent larger places by the room. There are always construction workers looking to get out of hotels or service members wanting away from the barracks who can't afford and don't need a large place. Couple that with a glut of three and four bedroom homes.
So I advertised a place for room mates on Craigslist. Within minutes I had a reply. Amazing! The inquiry was via text. Yes, I know, most kids these days use text because they can't hold a conversation, and I'm fine with that. This person asked me to reply to their email account. I don't mind exchanges via email or text, but I usually try calling the person back. With this call, I got google, go figger.
That tells me the person is not in the United States and not a GI. They would have furnished a dot mil address. There are plenty of scammers out there looking to rip off unsuspecting folks. Usually I pick up on the scam and tell them to fuck off. This time though I decided to play along. I'm feeling bored, winter is set in, it's cold out and there is only so much porn on the internet. Just kidding.
I replied and got this story that the person is a student doing research work in Alaska. Yup, I believe that like I believe mohammed was not a pedophile. Any way, this person is a Chinese American, pardon the poor engrish and is coming to my area to finish her masters degree.
I gotta tell you, it is hard to play a dupe with these morons. I played along any way. She is coming here. Her daddy is gonna send a cashiers check to cover the rent and deposit and is it all right if he includes the money to pay for having her car shipped to Kansas? The shipper will need paid in order to drop it off. Why can't daddy pay him direct you might ask?
This is a scam. I know it, you should too. They send the check via FedEx and sent me a tracking number. I contacted FedEx and they intercepted the check and sent it to their fraud division. I then contacted the scammer and told them the check never arrived. This morning as I'm leaving, here comes the FedEx truck. Looking in my rear view mirror, I see him turning into my driveway. Whoa! That check was supposed to have been caught. I reverse direction, and the FedEx guy hands me the envelope. This one is different from the first one. The first one was sent from South Carolina with a Minnesota return address. This one came from Oregon. Obviously they have more than one person in the United States dropping these things in the FedEx boxes.
The check was from a business in Wisconsin and drawn on a Wisconsin bank. It looked like a regular check except it had cashiers check in the top center. I'll go in to that later. I googled the business and tried calling them. No answer. It was a roofing company, and likely they were closed for the season? I then googled and called the bank. They notified the company and called me back later.
Right about then I got a text from the scammer. Did you get the check? Told them I wasn't home and would have the wife check at lunch. Keep em waiting, they need something to do.
Just for laughs I stopped by my bank. I handed the check to the teller, informed her it was a fraud and asked her to tell me why.
Here is the shocker, none of the tellers spotted the reason it was obviously a fraud.
A real cashier's check will be drawn on the bank's own escrow account. When you get a cashier's check, the bank withdraws the funds from your account. They then issue the instrument. It has their information on it. This fake had the business name, address etc, not the banks'. It was obvious that it was printed on a regular ink jet printer, something you might do at home if you have the blank checks and the program from quicken.
I have to wonder how many of these things they actually manage to float? Given that my bank people could not spot that it was a fraud in under ten seconds worries me, and it should you as well. You may never get one of these, but maybe, just maybe, they will get your account information and draw the next one from your account. Be worried, be very worried.
Why isn't our government doing anything about this? I contacted the sheriff, and I also asked the bank. It should be relatively simple to go to where this check was sent from, examine their video footage and figure out who sent this thing. No one wants to bother.
Why not? Simply put, this is one thing they are allowing to happen for a specific reason. This, coupled with drug money, and other soft money crimes are allowed to happen because the governments want to do away with real cash. They want us to switch to using deadbeat cards, credit cards and online bank payments. No more real money. Soon you will be offered the chance to have a chip embedded in your hand. Just swipe it. No loose change, no getting pick pocketed, no drug money terrorist money and fraud like this.
This is all about control. Once you are weened from real money, they can shut you off in an instant. they can seize a bank account in a flash. You cannot trade with out their mark. Now you are owned my them and they will be as fickle as mark sucklerberg and his farcebook banning of thinking Americans.
Do you know how to catch wild hogs? You start with a feed pile. You stock it regularly and once the hogs know where to come for tasty grub, you build a single fence. Not a long one, just one side of a pen. As soon as the hogs are used to that piece of fence, you build another one. Same way, wait a day, maybe a week, then the third piece of fence is built. Now the hogs are dealing with a very large U shaped pen they can easily escape. Next you build the last side with an opening for a gate. Then you install a gate that allows them to go in and out by pushing on it, then you make that gate a one way affair where they can enter but never leave. Welcome to the Hotel California.