The Better Business Bureau Serving Wisconsin (BBB) is warning businesses of a scam circulating called the “check overpayment” scam.
In this scam, the person you are doing business with sends you a check for more than the amount they owe you, and then instructs you to wire the balance back to them. Or, they send a check and tell you to deposit it, keep part of the amount for your own compensation, and then wire the rest back for one reason or another. The results are the same: the check eventually bounces, and you’re stuck, responsible for the full amount, including what you wired to the scammer.
The following is an email sent last week to a local heating and air conditioning company. Here, the scammer tries to get the company to accept his overpayment as compensation for helping him wire money to someone else. The emails were sent from an email address of ramonbyron8000@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Air conditioning service needed ASAP
I’m having a little problem with The Ex-owner of the house because I only paid 75% payment of the Property and he does not have the facility to accept credit card payment For me to balance him.
I just need you to bill my card for the sum of $6900 and help me forward $5200 to the initial owner has is balance payment of the house i just bought and you will be holding $1500 as deposit of your service plus $200 as tips for your time. So once the funds hit your account you will be forwarding the $5200 to the initial owner via bank cash deposit once he receive the money he will make the keys available for the air conditioning maintenance to be done…okay?
When the business says they will need to come out to the property to inspect the situation, the scammer replies:
Well I’m unavailable to meet in person for now due to my health issue and am willing to relocate to the house soon so i want you to handle everything for me.Before you go for the inspection kindly understand that the property key to the compound is with the initial owner so kindly bear me a little favor ??
These identical scam emails were reported to the BBB Serving North Alabama by a heating and air conditioning business in early August, 2017.
Consider the following tips to avoid falling victim to this type of scam:
- Know who you’re dealing with – independently confirm your buyer’s name, street address, and telephone number.
- Never agree to wire back funds to a buyer — a legitimate buyer will not pressure you to do so, and you have limited recourse if there is a problem with a wire transfer.
- If you’re selling something over the Internet, say “no” to a check for more than your selling price, no matter how tempting the plea or convincing the story.
- If you accept payment by check, ask for a check drawn on a local bank or a bank with a local branch. You can visit that bank branch to determine if the check is legitimate.
- There is no legitimate reason for someone who is giving you money to ask you to wire money back. Never agree to send money back to someone who claims to have overpaid you.
If you would like to report a scam, go to BBB Scam Tracker. To find trustworthy businesses, visit bbb.org.
For more information or further inquiries, contact the Wisconsin BBB at www.bbb.org/wisconsin or 414-847-6000 (metro Milwaukee), 920-734-4352 (Appleton), or 1-800-273-1002 (elsewhere in Wisconsin). Consumers also can find more information about how to protect themselves from scams by following the Wisconsin BBB on Twitter, Facebook and You Tube.
ABOUT BBB: For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. In 2017, people turned to BBB more than 160 million times for BBB Business Profiles on more than 5.2 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at bbb.org. There are local, independent BBBs across the United States, Canada and Mexico, including BBB Serving Wisconsin which was founded in 1939 and serves the state of Wisconsin.