money orders

I know someone who naively gave out her addy to someone who may be a scammer. I believe he is, she doesnt. He told her that he has had some unexpected delays and financial difficulties while visiting nigeria... he is supposedly from the usa. they have never met but communicate over the net. he has informed her that he is sending her a money order. that money orders cannot be cashed there in nigeria.. only checks can. can she please cash it and send him the money so he can return home to the usa. now im curious about this because... are money orders not cashable anywhere in the world?
now if she goes to the bank to try to cash this money order.. will the bank not notice its not real, and will she not get in legal trouble for cashing it? I'm trying to talk her out of it at my end, but failing. I think I'll lose my friend to a scam.
Can someone please advise me... will the bank know and will she be in trouble?

Welcome to Scamwarners danni
This is exactly the same as a check scam. The bank may 'think' the money order has cleared, but it will inevitably bounce and your friend will be liable for the money, so yes, she will be in trouble financially, if not legally as well. The situation you describe is very typical for this type of scam - the scammer befriends the victim, then is in need of urgent help - asking for money for travel, hospital fees etc.
Please ask your friend to read the posts about this type of fraud at the top of this forum.

Particularly this bit:

The love scam – the scammer befriends the victim in a chatroom, on a dating site, or through sites like MySpace. After pretending to fall in love with the victim, the scammer will come up with some pretext to ask the victim to cash a check. For example, he may say that someone owes him money, but he’s working abroad and cannot pay it into his own account. The scammer will ask the victim to pay it into their account and send the proceeds to him overseas.

Hi Danni, read this victims topic, it should answer many of your questions, it's the same format as your friends scam:

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=298

Everything your friends scammer has said, is the standard scammers format in fake cheque scams, all follow the same pattern, mostly that they cannot cash a money order in Nigeria, and need the money to get back to the US, so could you cash it for me and send me the money, which they almost always ask to be sent via Western Union, and because they will ask the victim for the money transfer control number (MTCN) and the security test question and answer, with both of those things, they can collect the money in Nigeria without having to show any ID, and so remaining anonymous behind their fake name.

A note about the Western Union "test questions and answers", they are only supposed to be used as security features, for example, you go abroad on holiday, you have your wallet, passport and ID stolen, you can get a friend relative to send you money via Western Union, you would normally need to show ID to collect the money sent to you, but your ID was stolen, so your relative gives you a security test question and answer, you present the test question and asnswer, along with the MTCN at Western Union, and they will pay you without the need for you to show any ID, unfortunately, scammers abuse this system by getting victims to send them test questions and answers, which means they are not able to be traced as they can collect the money using a fake name.

Read Western Union fraud information pages, here:

http://www.westernunion.com/info/fraudTips.asp
http://www.westernunion.com/info/fraudScams.asp#

Yes, her bank will cash the fake cheque, and because of the way banks work, they have to make funds readily available in the clients bank account straight after deposit, even though the cheque has not yet cleared.

Your friend will see the money from the deposited cheque in the account balance, withdraw it and send it to the scammer, a little while later, the bank will contact your friend saying the cheque they deposited was fraudulent, your friend now risks being arrested for money laundering/fraud, possible imprisonment, having their account frozen, they will also have to repay the bank the full amount of the fake cheque.

I will definitly get her to read these replies to my post!

Thank you for your immediate replies....


what should she do when she receives the money order... should she not accept the mail and it goes back or what do you recommend?

Either refuse to accept it, or take it to the police unopened and open it in their presence saying she believes it is a scam, the more often people take them to the police, the more they will become aware of the problem.
Edit, and then she has covered herself legally by reporting it to the police.

Im coming clean here... my previous post was about me. I have been on myspace and enjoyed meeting new people.. for chat... i had made 5 new friends, male friends. I found it odd that they all had connections with the african continent. How naive right? well 4 immediately tried all the scams on me. The moment they menioned money i deleted and blocked them. One man i had developed a very good relationship with. We chatted regularily, he went to the uk.. for business. then had a confirence in nigeria. he involved his children as well, and brought in the sympathy about the late wife dying of cancer. he had to do a speech in nigeria about teen pregnancies and abortions. suddenly he's emailing me a pic of a baby who "survived an abortion" her 17 year old mother tried aborting her and she delivered a monster... so the pic said. i told him straight out.. im sorry i dont have the money to send you. im in debt to my ears and im not able... im also diabetic with loads of problems... so he said he understood.
i was shocked at this time because i felt scam... but i was so much in love with this man... that i was struggling within myself. i wrote him goodbye letter explaining i didnt want to continue our relationship because i was too ill.. he wrote back.. never mind that.. we have gone too far in our relationship that we just give up... we'll deal after we meet. then i pretended to go to a birthright org. and i created a ficticious woman i was meeting with.. also nigerian. i created a dummy email acct for her and wrote to myself warning me that this miraculous monster child was a scam, no such child exists ... i tried to email him this letter.. but for some reason he claimed not to get it. i read it to him and as i did i cried... because of the hurt i felt... he swore it was a lie.. that he would write to her and give her proof of the child... since the acct is really me.. to this day i received no proof. now he's sent me a money order. im not sure yet how to handle it.. ive received good advice from a reply to an im msg here...thank you for that, will consider them.
Just before this posting i googled his email addy. found another scam that didnt succeed.
here is the link for your perusal....

i guess i didnt want to give up the man i came to love... i can relate to another victim.. its like im in mourning now... but truth shall set me free and im forever an optimist.
going to help others see the light now...
thanks all for listening/reading!

God Bless

Danni

Thanks for posting again, Danni, feels better to get it out in the open doesn't it, and there are always people here for you to chat with, you are not alone, hang around the site, and visit the other site if you want to learn the ways of a scambaiter, it looks to me that you might have the makings of being a good baiter from what you wrote in your last post, keep your chin up, and whilst you lost someone who you thought was real, at least you never lost your money, like a lot of victims do!

Thanks for sharing your story, Danni. Good luck to you.

And don't beat yourself up over it, they are so slick they could convince anyone with half a heart. At the same time, don't give up hope, I met my OH on line - but we wrote to each other for two years. Knowing how scammers operate is half the battle - never take anything at face value, talking to them on the phone isn't enough. It's sad when you can't trust someone but self-preservation is the most important thing. Find out where they work, a home address, and check it out - send them a postcard asking for one back, ask for their landine number and not a mobile - even if they're not a scammer, they could be married. If they are genuine they should be able to give you any details that you ask for. Read up about these scammers and you'll be able to spot them easily. Above all, don't rush it.

thanks for all this great advice!

im feeling so much better now! i dont think ill be mourning him for long!



Danni

These love scammers are real scum - they steal your money and break your heart too. I am very glad that you realised before it was too late. I know how difficult it is when you want to follow your heart, and your head is screaming "beware!" at the same time. The horrific pictures he sent you prove how low these scammers will sink in order to gain your trust and sympathy.

Unfortunately internet dating sites and places like myspace, craigslist etc are absolutely infested with scammers so you should be extra cautious when dealing with anyone you 'meet' there. With even some basic background research like Googling emails addresses or names, etc, you can often identify a scammer very quickly. As others have said, a genuine person will understand why you are taking precautions and will be happy to reassure you with verifiable information about themselves. And trust your instincts. Female intuition is a very powerful weapon against these lowlifes so use it! Good luck and thanks for sharing your story which will help many others facing a similar situation.

did google his email addy today. its what sealed the deal for me. it was a website informing people of scams. He tried to scam an older man with the sale of an old pick up truck. it was several wks worth of emails. but what was so obvious was his way of typing.. he doesnt capitalise unless he's raising his voice.. so every letter will be lower case.. and no spaces after punctuation. also the name he gave me was walter.. and in this email scam he used the name mr. walter. like i said, sealed the deal.
you know, after msging with everyone regarding this here, im not hurting as much anymore. ive really learned alot from this experience and i hope my postings help others in the future.

Danni

you know, after msging with everyone regarding this here, im not hurting as much anymore. Danni

We aim to please! Sharing your story can be a healing process for you and it's also very important in helping others to recognise they are being scammed. You can move on now armed with a lot more knowledge and information about these scammers and how they operate. If you want to help fight back then tell your family, friends and colleagues about internet scammers (you don't have to tell them your personal story) because there are still a lot of people out there who don't know about it and they are keeping these scammers in business. Internet scams are a HUGE, multi-billion dollar 'industry' so the more people you can warn about it the better.