They are out of the country on business and asked me to pay there bills for them. I want to do this safely as they are sending me funds from overseas. Will saving all the reciepts.. help..?
2006-08-05 05:37:00 · 14 answers · asked by thereishappiness4u 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Personal Finance
i am not sure
2006-08-05 05:40:28 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This sounds like a scam. Recently there are a lot of variations of these, so PLEASE be careful and don't let your compassion for others or desire to help pull you into a big mess. See the link below for some information about variations on this kind of scam. If you don't know the person who's asking you for help just step away.
If this is a friend rather than someone you've neve met, then it's all about how much you trust him or her. You have a couple options to protect yourself. One thing you can do is ask for power of attorney on a specific account. This is the safest for you, because you can write checks to pay the bills out of that account and the bank will keep track of all the checks and withdrawals so you can prove you have only done what your friend asked you to do. Unfortunately, your friend has to trust you A LOT for this.
Keeping the reciepts, the checks you write, and your friend's request that you pay the bills and promise to pay you back will protect you in the sense that you'd almost certainly win if a diispute went to court. The problem is that you've paid, your friend hasn't, and collecting the money is YOUR problem rather than the court's. The court will say "You're right; your friend is wrong; your friend owes you the full amount" but won't take the money out of your friend's account. You'll have to spend money to go after your friend's assets and collect what you can.
You can also have your friend send you money and you use that to pay the bills. Depending on the type of transfer, this will probably cost your friend money. If you choose this route, save copies of the bills and the checks you write to prove you actually paid the bills and the amounts you paid.
2006-08-05 05:51:50 · answer #2 · answered by the alex 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What I would do to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing -- people get funky when large sums of money change hands -- is go to the bank, cash the money orders and purchase new money orders made out to the debtor; i.e., Electric Bill, Water Bill, Mortgate company, etc.
Keep the receipts and fax them to your friend so he knows exactly what you're doing with the money and doesn't have a hint of worry that something might not go right. If you have extra money left over, write him an email and say, Hey, John, there was $134 left over from paying the bills. What would you like me to do with it? He might just tell you to keep it for going through the trouble of doing him this huge favor.
Be proactive and don't let small stuff fall through the cracks; that's a great way to end a relationship.
2006-08-05 05:43:38 · answer #3 · answered by Rebecca 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is this person someone you know???? If you have been solicited to receive money from a stranger, you might be getting yourself involved in something illegal. Many times people send money to strangers in a different country so that the fbi or interpol can no longer trace the money back to them. You become an unknowing accomplice.
It sounds shady...why can't they pay their bills from overseas? Do they have a checking account? They should if they have the money to go on "business trips overseas."They should be able to arrange to have those bills paid by autopay through their bank.
If you know these people well, you should tell them they need to contact their bank, and they can pay bills that way. Do not get involved...you will regret it later.
2006-08-05 05:44:48 · answer #4 · answered by firebetty74 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
DON'T DO THIS!!!!!!!
It is very likely a scam.
They contact you and ask you to pay their bills for them in cash once they send you a cashier's check or a money order.
The money orders are no good and they don't find they are no good until up to two weeks later once you've cashed them (against your account) and "paid off" the bills.
Once the money order is found to be fraudulent....YOU are obligated to pay the bank back and YOU then become the victim...you will never get the money back from the person to whom you paid cash to.
So....until this is being done by your parents or neighbor that you know very well and they are legitimately trying to get you to pay their bills.....don't fall for the scam.
2006-08-05 05:47:31 · answer #5 · answered by markmywordz 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes saving receipts helps, and if they have sent direct money orders already made out to the people they owe bills to, (if they did not save the carbon copy that is part of the money order), than you need to pull and save the carbon. You can get a copy made at the post office with little cost to yourself.. and send the originals back to your friends.
...I am not sure why your friends don't just mail them, themselves but you obviously are a good friend...
...I agree with Jeffster, as you may want to verify they are authentic as you could being used to pass off fake money orders. Hopefully your "friends" would not do anything like that, but if they are US Postal service, and are fraudulent, you could be prosecuted for a felony....I would be very careful..
2006-08-05 05:43:25 · answer #6 · answered by Rada S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are you sure there real? I think but not sure $3000 is the limit for cashing without the bank putting a hold on it. If it is a fake, the person would like for you to cash it over a weekend so it wont be detected on a working day.
2006-08-05 06:18:57 · answer #7 · answered by Grandpa Shark 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Open a checking account to pay the bills and deposit the money orders in that account each time you receive one. Check with them if this is okay but this seems the safest way to me.
2006-08-05 05:42:35 · answer #8 · answered by karen wonderful 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Somehow, these spammers/scammers have gotten a hold of your email...either by a virus on your computer or someone else's computer who grabs your email address from the address book or by buying the list from sites that ask you for this information when you sign-up to their legit websites. There's really nothing you can do to get off these lists. Just be smart and delete them when they show up in your spam folders.
2016-03-27 00:06:42 · answer #9 · answered by Nikki 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There fake Money Orders...you will be in big trouble if you cash.
If they are Postal money orders take to post office to report but there is little chance they will get into trouble being that they are from another country.
2006-08-05 05:42:01 · answer #10 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Money orders for $3,000? Are you sure about that? Most places won't issue them over $500. Make sure they are real, else you could be responsible when they turn out to be duds.
2006-08-05 05:40:48 · answer #11 · answered by Emm 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋