It started out with an ad on craigslist and she was the only one who responded back to me. She gave me a lot of information such as her name, age, two pictures, her interests and hobbies, and how she is “currently working with the Federal Agency of Works and
Environmental in Netherlands …I am currently on a research programmed,and
i am desperately looking for a place to stay” Now I never thought about twice about a roommate scam other than someone stealing all of my belongings so I was like okay sure this is how much it cost gave her details about the place, she didn’t need to see any pictures. Then she sent me a $4000 check saying that there is one months rent in it and the rest is to pay the guy bringing her stuff within 4 days. That’s when my red flag raised and I searched roommate scams in google and found all this is part of the process and that the check will bounce and I would be out $4000 dollars. I’m not 100% sure she is a scam but I have a pretty good reason to believe she is. Now I am trying to figure out what to do about it all and she just sent me an email in all caps with a subject DEAD OR ALIVE? and asking if I’m just taking her money and running and stuff like that. So now that you know the story my question is what do I do next? How do I respond to her? What do I do with the check? Should I contact the FBI? and any other advice would be great too. Thanks for the help!
Oh and I live in the U.S. if that helps.
I’m Stuck In The Middle Of A Roommate Scam Please Help!?
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It wouldn’t hurt to make a police report although they will probably never catch her.
I would not respond to her at all if I was you. She’s trying to first scam and now intimidate you. You don’t have to give her the check back, just do not cash it. The police will want it for evidence maybe. And if the guy shows up in 4 days pretend you don’t know what he’s talking about or that you never got the check. And try to get his license plate number! -
I had something like this happen at work one time.
Take the check to your bank. Tell them that your “room mate” from the Netherlands sent this check and you are concerned that the check is a forgery. They will be able to verify the check for you. If it’s valid, cash it and email this chick back and apologize. If it’s a forgery, don’t email back at all!
This is how the scam works: The bad guys get a whole bunch of routing numbers from overseas banks. They take real cashier’s checks, enter the routing number and enter a fake account number and amount of money. Tbey send this check to you. You take it to the bank and cash it. You think you have an additonal x amount in the bank since the bank holds the check for several days. You may pay bills, you may not. Either way, the check copy gets re-routed to the bad guys (how, I don’t know) and they have YOUR account number off the back of the check, with which they rob you blind.
So, check with the bank before you cash it! -
I had a similar situation with a car I was selling on Craigslist,I simply took the check to a bank and told them I thought it was part of a scam and I wasnt going to cash it if it wasnt real. They took the check and about 15 minutes later confirmed it wasnt a good check. They kept the check and I didnt get in any trouble.You should do the same thing.
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It sounds fishy, at best. I would talk to people at your bank and the local police. They could possibly catch her partner, the guy coming bringing her stuff, and put a stop to his part of these scams, at least.
It IS possible she is an overly trusting person who sent you that much money, but that is unlikely.
Oh yeah, if she is sending you death threats in emails, that is DEFINITELY something you should talk to the police about.
Actually, Becky is a bit wrong on how it works.
You deposit the check. You take out the “extra” to pay the guy in cash. We’ll say half, so $2k. The check comes back as invalid, and the bank removes the deposit from your account. You still have the $2k withdrawal though, so you are out that money, and the guy is GONE!