Is this a scam or legit?

[Leiaza]

even though the cops say its legit im gonna stop doing it cause i have a 1 month old that needs me

[Jillian]

@Leiaza: The checks may be written on a stolen account from a legitimate company. They would not be noticed as fraudulent until the company does their book keeping and complains to their bank. I have seen other situations in which the company was contacted to ask if a check was legitimate. Yes, that check appeared to be a legitimate check based on the check number but the problem was that there were a ton of others with that same number being sent out and the company did not know it yet. Did the police ask the company if they knew that you were printing out checks at home on their account and mailing them out?

All of us here have seen many many of these scams and recognize them well. I am sending you a private message.

Edit: You were posting while I was responding. I'm glad that you will stop doing this. I'm still sending you a private message.

[Leiaza]

Tax Free Shopping, LTD 14665 midway Rd St Addison Tx 75001

JPMorgan Chase Bank

NA 10430 Highland
Manor Drive 3rd Floor
Tampa,FL 33610-0000

[Clair]

To clarify on the above post: TaxFree Shopping Ltd in Texas is a legitimate company, in good standing with the Better Business Bureau. Here is a link to the Better Business Bureau profile: http://www.bbb.org/dallas/business-revi ... x-90037234

It appears as if the scammers are using the name of this legitimate company to support the scam. The bank information is also of a real JP Morgan Chase location.

Leiaza, It is good to hear that you have realized it is a scam and will no longer deal with these scammers.

[GomerPyle]

http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/crim ... eiting.htm

Another way that counterfeiting is unique is that jurisdiction for investigations involving the counterfeiting of United States obligations and securities lies with the US Secret Service. The Secret Service’s Financial Crimes Division also deals with the forgery of government bonds and checks, as well as other forms of bank fraud.

[GomerPyle]

I see how this has been worked.

Before I retired I worked in a bank in the UK and it was being operated in several ways. The fact that tax refunds are being offered to non-US residents is the clue.

I note this from the website

We currently offer two refund options. First, a paper check that can be sent to you in your home country. You can also choose to have the check sent to another person anywhere in the world. Secondly, you can also receive your refund by Electronic Funds Transfer via PayPal. Click here for more information on PayPal.

A non-resident makes a purchase and then applies for a check refund, which gives him a perfect original from which to make counterfeit copies. There must be someone local who can distribute the checks, as the original purchase must have been by someone local, but it's too risky, so that's why they try to recruit people on the internet.

I'm sure they try to find ways to get chequesfrom companies for a small outlay of money. I even had this happen at a firm of lawyers. Another trick is for them to alter the amount on the check and try to pass it through the system but this is much more risky for them as it relies on them having a bank account, which puts them at risk.

I'm glad to hear you're not taking this any further, and i'm a little shocked that your local police officers didn't look into this more. The consequences for your family and the other victims would have been very serious.

[Leiaza]

i informed the companies what was going on thanks to me they have enough info to save there company and deal with the scammers. Also the checks me and my bf sent out were never sent out UPS and Fedex had contacted those companies so the people we sent them to never got them.

[Peta]

Hi Leiaza, It's good to hear that you've taken a positive step to protect yourself and your family by giving up the check mule business. Obviously you're out of pocket after buying the check printing software, paper & ink. Take comfort in knowing that you've come out of this lightly. If you had gone ahead with it the consequences could have been far worse.

And though they don't know it, the innocent people who were due to receive the fake checks have avoided losing money to the scammer. Therefore there is no negative comeback on you.

[Leiaza]

Ya the companies let me know I was the only one to come forward me and my bf weren't the only ones helping this lady do the job. Now apparntly Anita.smith4real0001.com left me an IM the other day telling me that her business she worked for wanted us to change the Return address on the check and the bank. She also asked us to change the memo to cash since she said people weren't able to use there certified check. I have no way of knowing who she is stealing money from now =( but it apparntly so far it has been Tax free Shopping companies.

[Arnold]

It isn't the companies that are stolen from. The checks are cleared initially only because there is enough money in the account to cover it.
The victims are the people who banked the checks, because they will have been tricked into sending some of the money to the scammer by Western Union. The companies then spot the fake checks, and reclaim the money from the victims. Who are then out of pocket, possibly overdrawn, and in trouble for banking fake checks.
Leaving the scammer with stolen money and beyond the reach of the US police.

[Dotti]

Leiaza,

I may have missed it somewhere in the thread, but did someone have you check or post the IP address of the scammer from "her" emails? That can also be enlightening, as it will most likely track to Africa.

As Arnold said, the people who would have paid are the people who fell for the second part of the scam and responded to an ad for a work at home job processing payments or a phony mystery shopper job. The scammer will tell them to cash the check (because international banking makes it too hard for the company to do so for some reason) and wire 90% to the scammer, or they will be told to cash the check and "evaluate" Western Union by sending the cash from the check, minus their pay, to the scammer.
The way US law works, if a check turns out to be fake (or stolen), the person who is ultimately responsible for repaying the money is the person who cashed the check, even if that person had no idea the check was fake.

[Leiaza]

I asked the companies about this they both have a system along with UPS and fedEx have systems that will scan fraud packages I don't know how it's done but it keeps that from happening. So all the checks me and my boyfriend sent out were never recieved they were either given to the police or Destroyed by fedEx or UPS. I got a call from the Texas company today they said the scammers were caught thanks to me reporting it. Apparntly the woman [email protected] left herself wide open because they tracked her down and arrested her. Not sure exactly what happened other then that.

[Dora]

Leiaza, like the others, I am glad you accepted this was a scam and have stopped sending out these checks.

I do find it doubtful the scammers were caught. Yes, it does happen but not very often and not without a lot of work by the police and other government agencies. I would love to know where they were arrested; there would be a record of it somewhere.

Also, FedEx and UPS can stop packages if they have evidence or belief they might be fraudulent. But most times they don't know and have little way of knowing without additional information from those that report it to them while the shipments are in their custody. So most of these fake checks are delivered to victims without interruption via FedEx and UPS because there is no simple way to know a shipment is fraudulent.

[Clair]

Leiaza, Did the Anita Smith person give you a Fed Ex or UPS number to use when you were sending the checks?

If anybody was arrested in relation to this it could very well be another person much like yourself who thought they were doing work for a real company. Do you know where this arrest happened?

[Leiaza]

Yes she gave us like 5 ups and 5 FedEx account numbers the guy said FedEx and UPS already had the 5 account numbers so i didn't need to give it to them. As for the woman she was from Abuja, Nigeria even though she said she was from Ohio