Nigerian Fraud - PLEASE HELP

What is the name of your state? Massachusetts
I placed 2 flower girl dress on ultimatewedding.com - a website dedicated to brides helping each other with wedding planning - a woman contacted me stating she was interested in purchasing the dresses - she stated that she resided in London - but was working in the Benin Republic on official assignment - She said she would send payment to me - the next day she stated that someone in the U.S. owed her a large amount of money ($4,700) for a cancelled order and asked if i would collect the funds on her behalf - withdraw the amount for the dresses and send her the remaining balance via Western Union - Initially I declined - I said I did not want to be responsible for such a large amount of money - she pleaded with me - and being she posed herself as a bride in need of help - I agreed to help her. The Check was issued in form of Official U.S. Bank check - It was delivered via FEDEX - I took the check to my bank - they stated that they needed to hold it for 24hrs - I went back to my bank 24hrs later to see if the check had cleared - The same teller who deposited the check told me the check had Cleared - I then went on to tell her the entire story. She said well the check cleared - and i withdrew the $4,700 - the next day I sent this person the remaining balance of $4,055.00 via Western Union to the Benin Republic. Two days following - my bank informed me that the check came back and was counterfeit. The bank now holds me responsible for the money - they bounced all of my checks that came in for my account and drained my savings. They are now looking for me to pay the balance owed to them in the amount of $2,150 by the end of the week - they already took everything i have and i have no way to even pay my bills at this point.
The bank stated that they did not clear the check - that they made the funds available to me within 24hrs because it was a bank check and 99% of the time they are good checks - But the term said to me when collecting the money was "CLEARED" no one ever explained to me that the clearing process wasnt complete and that this check could come back. The just said cleared - so i figured i was all set and the check was good. Never would I have wired the money had anyone suggested that the clearing process wasnt complete.
Please help!!!

Did you honestly not see the scam? Deal with it, you fell for it.

No actually I didnt see it - I thought it was a strange scenerio - But I relied on the banks confirmation prior to sending the funds - Of course now i can see it all very clearly - This was a website that I planned most of my wedding on and people talked with one another and helped each other - so no i didnt see it coming -

Thanks for your KINDNESS

This is the oldest scam on the internet. And it has been discussed ad nauseum here on this forum.

Good rule of thumb. Your first impression is ALWAYS better than the wrong thing.

Ok - I get it - I was scammed - Im not a frequent user of this site - Never had the need to prior to this
My question is Does the bank hold any responsibility towards this - They told me the check cleared - now the are saying something different.

No the bank is not responsible. YOU ARE. Because the bank cleared simply means there were funds available in the account it was written on.

The bank doesn't know that the check was counterfeit just as the issuing bank doesn't know until the check reaches them.

The ONLY person (people) who bear responsibility in this matter is you, for falling for the scam (sorry, but them's the facts) and the bit-ch who scammed you.

Now, who do you think will end up paying the most?

PT Barnum was right.

if you send me $5000 I will get your money back for you. really. i'm not fooling. cmon. dont wait.

If the people who dream up these scams would only apply half that ingenuity towards legitimate endeavors, they wouldn't have to scam at all now would they.

Usually these 'come ons' are centered around greed (ie you can keep $1000 as a facilitation fee). This one capitalized on your sense of altruism. When constructing any transaction, never accept 2nd tier forms of payment. If they can't pay using verifyable, guaranteed methods, pass on it. Rule of thumb, if it sounds fishy, it is...

Nigerian Fraud

I also fell for a similar SCAM-twice. I shipped items because I received EMails with what I thought was transaction numbers from Western Union saying my Money Order would be mailed within a certain period of time, etc. When payment was not received I contacted Western Union and learned they had no knowledge of the numbers. The EMails looked official to me. My items also went to Nigeria. It looks like there would be away to trace people down with EMail addresses. One of mine was a man, said he was in England, the other was a woman, said she was handicapped and in California. They both have Yahoo EMails. One had just EMailed me yesterday offering to pay me the same way you were paid. I am glad I was surfing and read your plea for help.

The Nigerian scam business, is the THIRD largest 'industry' in Nigeria. They have collected millions of dollars from victims worldwide..... and numerous deaths have been reported when victims traveled to Nigeria to try to find their money.

More at:
http://www.quatloos.com/

Here is an online article about the 'new' version that this writer fell for.... the internet sales scam:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56829,00.html

An interesting story with some background information can be found at:
http://members.tripod.com/~orgcrime/niginside.htm

More victim stories:
http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/checks21_20020921.htm
http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/419News.html
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3078489/

And finally, if you want to laugh at these scam artists, you should take the time to follow the stories by Brad Christensen at:
http://www.quatloos.com/brad-c/directory01.htm
(Some of these are HILARIOUS!!!)

I listed a piece of furniture on an antiques website and I received several similar scam emails. In my case I was immediately suspicious because they wanted to buy the item sight unseen. No one in their right mind would do that. One said that they wanted to give it to their "20 year old son" who was graduating from school. What 20 year old do you know would want an old piece of furniture for a gift?? None on this planet!!
One email stated that a "client" in the UK owed them 5,500 pounds and that they would send the check to me. I was to take out the money for my item and any shipping fees and send them the remainder.
I emailed them back and told them it would be much less complicated if the person who owed them money, sent them the check. After all they didn't owe me any money. Then they could cash it, deposit it...whatever. I would never do any type of business transaction with anyone who proposed such a thing.

I am sorry that someone believed a similar story.

Nigerian Scam

Alabama-I received a cashiers check today $5,850.00 They want me to take out what is owed me and send the rest to fiance in Africa. I took it to my bank and left it. It seems like the FBI could trace this person, since they have been corresponding with me for two months, through an EMail address.
I feel like some of these people are right here in the United States and could be stopped.

That is what I think too. And I'm getting ready to do something about it. Law enforcement isn't. It's time we do something as citizens. These people should be shot!

bigtcattle said:

Alabama-I received a cashiers check today $5,850.00 They want me to take out what is owed me and send the rest to fiance in Africa. I took it to my bank and left it. It seems like the FBI could trace this person, since they have been corresponding with me for two months, through an EMail address.
I feel like some of these people are right here in the United States and could be stopped.

Click to expand...

For your own safety, simply reverse the roles. Do NOT send this person any money. If they contact you looking for their 'change', simply tell them that you suspect the mails and ask them to come to YOU (give them a fake address) to get their money. Of course they won't..... but you will not lose yours either!!