I was recently contacted by a David Mark to receive payments for him, cash them, take out my ten percent and then send the remainder by moneygram immediately. Well, I was unsure, but willing to see if this was legit or not. I was contacted by a scam warner, but not sure I should rely on that info either. I received the first check today, it was sent from CA, and I was to send it via moneygram back to CA. Made no sense to me, and the check definitely looks fake. Now, I am not sure what to do with this fake check and should I report this scam to someone? Obviously, I would never deposit this check in my account. I never gave any info other than my name and address. Should I do something?
Hi kke6331 welcome to Scamwarners,
The scamwarner has done you a big favour. The cheque is a fake and if you had of deposited it, you would have ended up losing the money that you sent by MoneyGram and possibly been subject to questioning by Law Enforcement.
The scam works like this. You were probably told that the cheques you were to receive were payments for orders for sales for a company. Ask yourself this, why would a legitimate company not have its own bank account to have the cheques paid into?
You would have paid the cheque into your bank account, waited a few days for it to clear and then sent the balance by MoneyGram. The problem is that weeks after you have sent the payment (and probably a lot more), the cheque would have been found to be fake (probably when the company who's account it was drawn on noticed an unauthorised payment) and the money would have been debited back from your account. You migh also have Law Enforcement officers questioning you on cheque fraud.
The scam preys on people's belief that once the money appears in their account then that is it, the money is theirs.
The best thing to do is to rip the cheque up and throw it away. You can report it to your local Law Enforcement, but they probably won't do much about it - but it does cover your back. Also, cut of all communication with the scammers - don't answer their emails or phone calls. They will pester you at first, but soon move on to another victim.