I just received two fake checks . What do I do ?

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100% scam.

There is no job. The checks are fake, shred them and ignore the scammer.

There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.

The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send most of the "money" via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "supply company" while you "keep" a small portion. When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.

When you refuse to send him your cash he will send increasingly nasty and rude emails trying to convince you to go through with his scam. The scammer could also create another fake name and email address like "FBI@ gmail.com", "police_person @hotmail.com" or "investigator @yahoo.com" and send emails telling you the job is legit and you must cash the fake check and send your money to the scammer or you will face legal action. Just ignore, delete and block those email addresses. Although, reading a scammer's attempt at impersonating a law enforcement official can be extremely funny.

Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.

You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

6 "Rules to follow" to avoid most fake jobs:
1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.
2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.
3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.
4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.
5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.
6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.

Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed 'red flags' and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.

If you google "fake check cashing job", "fraud Western Union scam", "check mule moneygram scam" or something similar you will find hundreds of posts from victims and near-victims of this type of scam....Show more

You turn the checks, the original envelope and copies of all email you have received over to your local police and report that you were recruited as a money mule

Don't just throw them out - that's why these scams continue. it's only if people keep reporting it and the police investigate that they will be able to eventually find the people running this scam. Also the police need to inform the real person or company whose name is on the checks that their checks have been counterfeited so the company can put a freeze on their account

Every Western Union office has a big poster warning customers NEVER to send money for Mystery Shopping

I have had mystery shopping experience since 1996 and can tell you that you are NEVER sent checks/money orders in advance, NEVER told to send money through Western Union, and you are not paid more than $10 per mystery shop. You also never get any jobs until you have first filled out and returned an I-9 and W-4 form AND have completed a training/orientation with the mystery shopping company. NO company sends out untrained people on shops...Show more

Since the scammers now know where you live, you don't want them to threaten you and your family Wait a day, then email them to say that you tried to cash the check at your bank and they said it was drawn on a closed account and they have turned it over to their fraud team for investigation. Say that you are sorry but you will not be able to work with them and if they send you any more checks, you will return them to sender Now look up the company whose name is on the check. Call their REAL number, not any number you were given, and tell them about the check you received. They probably have no idea that their checks have either been stolen or counterfeited, so you should inform them of the check you got so they can call their bank and put a freeze on their account to prevent any of these checks from clearing, as you are not the only person who got one Then contact your local police, non-emergency number, and ask them if they want you to bring them the fake check, envelope and copies of all eamils, or if you should just shred it...Show more

If you have to question why you have received monies like this you should no this is a SCAM. Tear them up immediately or better yet, report this scam to Western Union....Show more

This is a very popular scam.

The check is real. You cash the check and send them money via western union they they put a stop payment on the check.

They also use legitimate companies names to run this scam.

Throw it in the trash....Show more