has anyone heard of this?someone sent me $10,000 worth of travellers checks,checks are legit?

Question

i mailed them back to address on original envelope,they came back due to ivalid,bogus address.i did have my local bank check them
and they said they are legimate.what should i do?also a note that came with the checks instructed me to take a $1,000,split the rest and mail each half to 2 different people in different countries.this is very strange

Answer 1

THIS IS A SCAM!!! Let me guess, was the original address from Nigeria or a surrounding area? This is the famous Nigerian scam. You can find more at the site below... although, it is also a site where they try to get the scammers back as well. Funny. But very informative.

http://www.419eater.com

Answer 2

OMG dude. DO NOT, i repeat DO NOT Cash those in your account! I had that EXACT same thing happen to me. Let me tell you the story....

Short Version:
This lady sent me 16 $500 ($8000USD) Bank Of America Traveller's Cheques, I was happy because I had just opened a BOA checking account. I deposited the cheques into my account at Bank Of America and, three days later, they were cleared and the funds were available in my account. So, I sent $6000, split up between two people, to the UK via Western Union. I figured that I had really got into a nice deal. THEN I checked my account a couple days later. My balance was $-8240. I almost cried! I went to the bank, and they told me that it was because the account number that the Cheques had been drawn from was closed. Therefore, I am STILL trying to pay the money back to the bank.
So, PLEASE heed my warning and report ALL of the activities between yourself and the other person to the FBI and your local Police Station. There are investigations being conducted on these people. The majority of them are from Nigeria. They have a PERFECT English (UK) accent. So, Beware.

Answer 3

oney Order roommate Scam meets Travellers Check Scams!

At first it just does not make sense. Something as mundane as getting a roommate in (it's after they come in - that the problem arises) - has a scam associated with it.

I have been looking for roomies for my place for a month and advertising in the usual places - craigslist/roomates.com etc.

My past experience when I came to the US and looking for a room to rent was not atypical. The conversation with the landlord went pretty much like this:

"Hello. I just came over for my MBA at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and would like to find a place to stay for my 2 yrs here."

"Great. Congrats. Awesome school. Do you have a Social Security Number - so I can do a credit check and everything will be smooth."

"Well. I just came to the US. It takes a few more weeks before I can get a SSN. And there will be no credit history since i came only a wk ago!"

"But you need a credit history for us to lend you the room..."

"But I wont have one. That is the point!"

"Ah, well. Sorry about that. It is our policy to...."

So while I understand the landlord's perspective, it wasnt helping me too much. Anyway I did resolve to help other internationals/immigrants should they be facing similar situations.

Following is the Story as it happened

So a month ago when I posted my "Room to rent" ad and I got an email from "someone in the UK" who was going to make their trip to the US on a contract and had to spend a few months here - (perfect market for my month-month furnished room lease deal) - It was my time to help..... or so I thought.

After talks online and email exchanges - the person sounded friendly and I agreed to the deal. Then I get similar stories from 4 more ppl plus another common them:

They all wanted to send me "money" towards the deposit by money orders/travellers checks from their "agent in the US" and for amts more than was necessary and have me send them "Cash" for their travel to the US. Sure enough - that smelled Fishy.

A simple MSN search (notice I have begun swaying away from using the G-word as a verb for websearches) provided me with a craigslist popular scam definition and not to mention the USPS moneyorder scam alerts webpage.

These scams were popular at EBAY and UBID but now they are in the rental/roommate market. The scam works this way in the rental market:

a) Person from international country mails you abt interest and gets your interest in various ways.

b) They want to pay the deposit (Which is what you want too) immediately and "book the place"

c) They send you twice the required amount from a US "agent"

d) They request you to mail the extra sent back to them as cash or some form of payment which is legit (Note that the letter that they send has no signature or letterhead - very fishy!!!)

e) Once you do that - your cashing of the checks/money orders will be deemed counterfeit after a few wks or a month and you have just paid off for nothing!

Anyways I just wanted to go the mile and see how long these ppl would go. Do bear in mind - I was a still a little cognizant of a few rotten apples spoiling the basket concept - so I did give them the benefit of doubt and asked them for Fax docs of their passports, visas, employment contracts etc. Once those were refused with all kinds of excuses. It was obvious it was a scam. So I just played along..... and just yesterday was fedexed 5 AMEX Travellers checks for $500 each with hologram and watermark et al! Quite authentic looking.

Well with AMEX just across the road here at Redmond - it wasnt long to confirm that those were counterfiet.

On the bright side - it was a great learning experience abt going the whole nine yards on these Money-order-scams and knowing how ppl just cheat on the "goodness" of others.

The flip-side was ofcourse that I went without roomies sharing my house-payments burden for a month - but hey the learning experience was priceless.

Answer 4

This may be a Philanthropist (I get this stuff all the time, I just give it all away, and more keep coming) which is good. The person checking out your integrity. Do what it ask. You may get more! Odds are they counterfeit, the bank will not even know until they send them through the process. A friend's son sold a piano on EBay and the buyer was overseas and paid for shipping and everything..........with these type checks. The bank said they were good and he shipped. Only to find out a few weeks later they were counterfeit checks!!!!! Piano was gone!

Answer 5

It could be a scam...after you cash them or whatever, they want their money back. Like a refund. I wouldn't cash them if I were you unless you know who sent them to you.

Answer 6

that's crazy!

maybe I'm naive, but it sounds legit to me. Maybe it's a pay-it-forward/random acts of kindness kinda thing

: )