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Want to avoid the latest rip-offs? Sign up for free scam alerts from the FTC at FTC.gov/Scams. The moral of the story? If anyone ever asks you to deposit a check and then wire or send money in any way, you can bet it’s a scam. (By the way, money orders and cashier’s checks can be faked, too.) By the time you try to get the money back from the money transfer service, the scammers are long gone, and they’ve taken all the money off the gift cards, too. How does that even happen? Well, banks must make funds from deposited checks available within days, but uncovering a fake check can take weeks. The bank finds out the check you deposited is a fake, which means you’re on the hook for all that money. You’re instructed to send pictures of the cards or to give the numbers on the cards.įast forward days or weeks to the unhappy ending. Or you might be told to use the money to buy reloadable cards or gift cards, such as iTunes cards. Your first assignment is to test the in-store money transfer service, like Western Union or MoneyGram, by sending some of the money you deposited. Now you’re off to the store you’ve been asked to shop at and report back on, often a Walmart. You deposit the check and see the funds in your account a few day s later, and the bank even tells you the check has cleared. You get a check in the mail with a job offer as a secret shopper. One of their old favorites brings together fake checks and secret shopping, and we’ve been hearing a lot about it lately. Once they find one that works, they use it again and again. Scammers need a good story to get to your wallet.

