Suppose you offer an item for sale in the newspaper or on the Internet. A buyer calls and offers to buy your item with a cashier’s check, personal check, or corporate check. You accept. Then, the buyer sends you a fake check or money order made out for more than the cost of your item. The check might be from a bank outside the U.S., but some scammers make fake postal orders too. The buyer might say the check is so large because he made a mistake, or added extra money to cover the shipping cost, or for some other reason.

Next, the buyer asks you to deposit the fake check into your bank account and quickly wire the excess money back to him. If you deposit the check and quickly wire money to the buyer you may be in for a big shock. By law, banks must make deposits available to you in just a few days, before they know if a check has fully cleared. When a bank gives you money it does not prove the check is good. It can take one month or longer for a bank to find out a check is counterfeit. If you send money based on a counterfeit check before the bank finds out the check is counterfeit, you must reimburse the bank for all the money you sent. The check was counterfeit, and fooled the bank tellers, but you pay the penalty.

Other criminals don’t pretend to buy things. They send e-mails or visit Internet chat rooms and ask for help to cash a money order. They say they don’t trust their bank, or don’t have a proper account and offer to pay for your help. If you cash their fake money order and send them money before the bank finds out the money order is counterfeit, you must repay all the money you sent.

If you get an unusual request to send money, take a minute to check it out. If you are uncertain or suspicious of a telephone, paper mail or email-solicitation contact your local or state consumer protection agency or State Attorney General, listed in your phone book. Many criminals tell you to send money to Canada. If you are concerned about a Canadian company, call PhoneBusters toll-free at 1-888- 495-8501. They are a Canadian anti-fraud call center.

Learn about the security features in postal money orders. The maximum value for US and Canadian postal money orders is $1,000. The maximum value for International postal money orders is $700. If you have doubts about a postal money order, hold it up to the light to see a watermark of Benjamin Franklin.

Tips for Consumers

Do not send money if a caller requires you to send money “right now!”

Do not send money to someone who tells you what to say to the wire transfer agent, or says you should hide information or lie to the wire transfer agent. 

Do not send money through a money transfer company or wire money directly into a seller’s bank account unless you know the seller personally or are positive of the seller’s identity.

Do not wire money to pay for an item you bought from an online auction. If the seller demands to get paid by wire transfer, it’s safer to stop the transaction.

Ignore the messages that tell you to send money to claim your lottery prize, surprise inheritance or dream job overseas. If you send money for ‘fees’ or ‘taxes’ you will get nothing in return. Don’t play a foreign lottery over the phone or by mail – it is illegal.

If you ever send a money transfer and think you might be a victim of fraud, ask the clerk to stop your transaction immediately. If you think you have been the victim of internet fraud, you can file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at http://www.ic3.gov or the Federal Trade Commission at http://www.ftc.gov, or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). If you lost money to people who say they are outside the United States, call your local Secret Service field office. It is listed in the government pages of your phone book.