A small cell of the notorious fake check scamming ring from Nigeria were caught this week. I am sure some of you have been victims or almost victims to this popular scam ring. The scam would involve a seller and a buyer. The seller is the victim and buyer is the scammer. The buyer sends you a check as payment for an item you sold. You deposit the check in your bank. You think “all is well” because the money clears. Until about 30 days later when your bank finds the error. Then your bank accuses you of depositing or cashing a fake check.

That’s right, what a terrible thing to do to someone. There have been cases of people selling cars or property and falling for this scam. I read about someone who lost fifty thousand dollars from this scam. Listen to this;

This land lord put a property up for rent in a classified ad. The buyer(scammer) wanted to supposedly rent property. They told the landlord they were moving from the UK to the USA. They told them that their company was paying them fifty thousand dollars to relocate(this is normal for re-locations). So nothing out of the ordinary the land lord goes along with it. The landlord was told they would receive a relocation check for fifty thousand dollars. When the check came they were asked to cash it and send twenty five thousand dollars to their decorator(so they could decorate the apartment before they flew in). They were also told to take the other twenty five thousand dollars to keep as the first years rent upfront. So the landlord goes to the bank. The bank excepts the check and he takes out twenty five thousand for himself and the other twenty five thousand to the decorator. Guess what? The decorator is the scammer also. You send the money to the decorator and think all is well. About thirty days later you get a phone call from the bank telling you that you have 24 hours to pay back fifty thousand dollars or they report you to the FBI for fake check scamming.

Believe it or not, people fall for this scam everyday. Just remember, nobody is going to give you more money than you have coming to you. That should bring up red flag number one. The second problem is; they want you to send a quantity of money to some you don’t know, that isn’t even involved in the trade. These are the 2 signs of someone trying to scam you.

The second way this scam could go is the most popular one. It goes like this: You put an item up for sale and get a replay like;

Hi my name is so and so from (another country) and was interested in your item. Is it still for sale? I want to buy something for my friend in your country. He also needs extra money for (an excuse). If I send you (amount of money) more than the item is worth; can you send it to my friend in your country along with the item? You think okay, I can send it along with the item anyway. You deposit or cash the check and send the person your item and extra money. The bank picks up on the error about 30 days later when nothing can be done. Now the person gets away with your money and the item. You owe the bank money for the fake check also. You lose three times. Your item, extra money, and full amount of check.

Another popular Nigerian scam goes like this. Its a little different and doesn’t involve a check.

Hi my name is so and so from (another country) I have a large quantity of money(usually in tens of millions) that I can’t touch unless we pay (another large quantity of money, usually in the hundreds of thousands) for lawyers fees. If you help we will send you (another large quantity of money, usually millions). Don’t ever fall for this scam. I can’t believe people have fallen for it. The government say over 100 million dollars has been stolen from this scam in the USA alone. So, someone is falling for it.

Nobody can be sure this ring has been stopped with this bust in New Hampshire. It is believed that there are thousands of people involved all around the world. One thing is for sure. The ring has scammed billions of dollars from people all around the world. There seems to be this same exact check scam going on all around the world right now. Its sad when people have to resort to this kind of thing. This ring in New Hampshire that was caught is a small part of this enormous scam ring from Nigeria. But they were responsible for an estimated 5-10 million dollars scammed from people. And there were only two people involved in this small cell of the ring. To think there are thousands of people involved in this scam and what huge amount of damage only two people caused. I can’t even fathom what the rest of the ring is pulling in.

Just remember the 2 warning signs of the Nigerian check scam.

1. Nobody sends you more money than the item costs.

2. Nobody is going to ask you to send money to someone you don’t even know. Especially if they aren’t even involved in the transaction.

If anyone has questions let me know. I would hate to see anyone fall for this.