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Am I getting scammed

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Nemz10

Junior Member
About 6 months ago I started working at home for this company called New-Suit. The lady I was a virtual stylist assistant for wanted to start her own eBay clothing store. She wanted me to be the CEO since she would be back and forth to Turkey to buy clothes she wanted me to open a business checking account in my name. She went ahead and used my info to attain an EIN number. I stupidly opened an account and gave her the bank info for it. She herself deposited two large checks in the account before she left for Turkey. She wants me now to wire her most of and then keep a smaller amount for myself for commission. I think I got scammed and I don't want to send the money because I'm afraid of what will happen to me if those checks come back bad. She says they are from investors and promises they are good. Since I won't wire to Turkey she wants me to wire to her friend in the states. I'm still unsure. Now she is getting upset with me and thinks I'm trying to scam her and that she is stuck in Turkey until I send the money to her friend so she can wire to the woman in Turkey. Someone help!! I've talked to the bank and am thinking about contacting a lawyer. I just want the money to go back where it came from and close the account and get rid of the EIN. Any suggestions??
 


quincy

Senior Member
About 6 months ago I started working at home for this company called New-Suit. The lady I was a virtual stylist assistant for wanted to start her own eBay clothing store. She wanted me to be the CEO since she would be back and forth to Turkey to buy clothes she wanted me to open a business checking account in my name. She went ahead and used my info to attain an EIN number. I stupidly opened an account and gave her the bank info for it. She herself deposited two large checks in the account before she left for Turkey. She wants me now to wire her most of and then keep a smaller amount for myself for commission. I think I got scammed and I don't want to send the money because I'm afraid of what will happen to me if those checks come back bad. She says they are from investors and promises they are good. Since I won't wire to Turkey she wants me to wire to her friend in the states. I'm still unsure. Now she is getting upset with me and thinks I'm trying to scam her and that she is stuck in Turkey until I send the money to her friend so she can wire to the woman in Turkey. Someone help!! I've talked to the bank and am thinking about contacting a lawyer. I just want the money to go back where it came from and close the account and get rid of the EIN. Any suggestions??
What is the name of your state?
 

AdjunctFL

Member
I think I got scammed and I don't want to send the money because I'm afraid of what will happen to me if those checks come back bad.
I think you got scammed also. The typical scam is to refund money paid before the original checks cleared. A red flag here is that she sent you money and wants part back, when she could have just sent you your commission. If me, I wouldn't send her any money back until my bank absolutely confirmed that the original deposits had fully cleared. That may take some time if drawn on a foreign bank.
 

Nemz10

Junior Member
I believe the checks were from Citibank out of South Dakota. I plan on waiting until I know they are ok. Then I don't have a problem sending the money back and being done with our 'business'. She claims she is stuck in Turkey and can't come home to the states within the money so I'm going to have to deal with her for awhile I'm thinking. I will feel terrible if this isn't a scam but it sure seems like it. I do not want or need any legal trouble. You think this can work out for me?
 
This is a variation of a common scam. A bogus check can come back as insufficient or uncollectable long after many people think it has cleared. True to form, the scammer will get angry and may even threaten to call the police or issue other hollow threats if you offer any resistance to sending the money.
 
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FlyingRon

Senior Member
There is no way a depositor of a check can wait out a check to find out if it is OK (at least not in a reasonable time). It can take several weeks for a bogus check to make the round trip from the bank of deposit back to the issuing bank to back to the deposit bank then to the customer. Do not confuse the funds availability date. That's purely based on the processing of a check assumed to be good.

Yeah, the "you cash the checks and send me the money" is one of the oldest ebay scams out there.
 

PZagotti

Junior Member
So I have dealt with the so many times before.
I understand that you want to know when it is safe to send the money back but here is the issues, those checks while fraudulent are probably pointing to a real bank account with money.
You see in scams like these the real target is the company's on the checks you cashed, you are just the middle man who get screwed in the process.
People working as accounts receivable clerks make copies of checks at their job and then use that check copy to recreate another check in that companies name pointing to a real bank account.
So lets say your check clears and then a month or two later the real company finds out that there is a check no one can reconcile.
That company calls their bank who then send the company a copy.
The company take a look at the copy and notices all the small differences between their check and the fraudulent one presented.
The bank claws back the money and you are left holding the bag.
The whole thing can take months.

If you want to know if this is a fraud then a quick way is to get copies of the checks cashed to your account and look up the company the check is drawn on online.
Don't call the phone number listed on the checks as that could be misleading too.
When you call the company ask for the accounting department.
Ask them to look up the check and make sure that it is in their system and that the amount, check # payee name are matches and that the check has not cleared twice.

That will probably answer your question and the whole process make take like 10 or 15 minutes.

As for the bank account you setup I would shut that thing down first thing Monday morning.
I could spend the rest of the evening talking about wonderful opportunities that bank account would afford me to rip people off and mess you up in the process.
As for the EIN, if this is really fraudulent then you could find yourself dealing with other issues over the next few years.
EINs are like SSNs, I could do a lot of damage opening up bank accounts, doing some credit fraud and it will all initially point back to you.

Keep good records of what's going on and what you are doing to shut this stuff down.

Good luck!
 

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