"From what we understand, it was probably put in the mail here in Youngstown and then was sent somewhere else," said Melissa Ames from the Better Business Bureau. Ames is talking about a check, which ended up in the hands of 24 year old Amy DiChristina. Looking to sublet a room in her Williamsburg, Brooklyn apartment, she turned to Craigslist. A few days later, she received a fake check.
Postmarked Youngstown, Ohio, the check, which appears to be from an Indiana company, was to go towards part of the rent, but the sender asked DiChristina to wire about half of the money back via Western Union, saying they needed it for moving costs. For some Western Union agents here in the Valley, that story is nothing new. "I've had some where people come in and they want to send Western Union because they've received a few checks with the instructions of deposit immediately and send Western Union," said John Riley, who provides Western Union services through his insurance company in Poland, Riley Insurance.
The scam artists do have a reason behind this. "They want you to wire that money because those wire transactions cannot be traced, so you think you might be sending it to Chicago, but you may be sending it to India with no clue," said Ames.
The fake checks are often written with the stolen identity of a real bank and company, so the bank will initially cash it, and that means bad news for the consumer. "The consumer will be responsible for those funds. Even if they don't know who sent them the money, they're a victim of a scam, but in the end, the consumer is left holding the bag," Ames said.
There's no concrete way of tracking down people sending these fake checks. Both the Better Business Bureau and wire transferring companies like Western Union say never cash a check from a person or a company you don't know.
