Credit Checks and Stargates
By Robert Pritchett
“An honest man cannot be cheated.” "Americans love so much to be fooled." “Average Joes are natural marks.”
Read “The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man” by David Mauer and Luc Sante:
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Con-Story-Confidence-Man/dp/0385495382
The wire. The rag. The payoff. The conmen and conwomen seek out the successful entrepreneur and successful risk taker. And thus “The Sting” was inspired.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sting
Way back in July 2006, I wrote Scam Artistry – Where's the Pony and the Bogus-Meter? that discussed situations I ran into online;
http://www.maccompanion.com/macc/archives/July2006/Columns/ScamArtistry.htm
Well, here is the sequel;
Like the Stargate in SG1, I left two bank accounts open for doing Internet ACH and wire transfers, hoping that prospective investors would indeed be knocking on my virtual door, lavishing me with gifts of investment monies. They came, but like those interstellar travelers, who thumped up against the closed stargate iris and perished, these individuals and outfits – let’s call them “grifters” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grifters_(film) have run up against banking institutions, that since 9/11/2001, have established safeguards to minimize or totally stop fraud.
Soliciting Solicitors
Since July, I continued to solicit investment funds to grow my business, but it seems there is way too much chaff and very few legitimate kernels of wheat. In my experience, I have found no wheat so far via the Internet, in spite of calls to me by “investors” to the contrary. Those with whom I have had the “pleasure” of dealing with, offered me deals and received the link to my “Scam Artistry” article with a warning. Each one wanted to deal with me anyway. Each one had me sign and exchange papers and documents in prospective partnerships. Phone calls followed. And each experience has ended in funds being sent through diverse methods to me, with the final outcome being that each and every single one has turned out to be sophisticated counterfeits, only stopped at the desk of a bank fraud department. For me, this story has gotten old, fast.
And that is why I had to close some of my business bank accounts I had set up for the purpose of collecting funds. Indeed, as far as I’m concerned, my Stargate is closed for business.
Checking Cheques
Some banks don’t have a service to check cheques before they get deposited, so they process those and then verify that the money vehicles are bogus after-the-fact. By then it is too late and I end up with a bad experience and have to pay fees to unprocess those (now proven) fraudulent deposits.
With wire transfers, the other party can pull the funds back, so if they are not pulled from the account quickly, they get removed by the sender and I am left “holding the bag”. Either way, I loose. I wisely leave those funds alone, expecting the bank to clear them later. Each time, the funds were returned to the “senders”, because apparently they turned out to come from accounts that did not belong to them. I notify the senders of the failed transaction and stop doing business with them and pass along the activity information to the proper authorities to deal with.
Personally, I would like to see each bank branch have a cheque scanner that can run money orders, certified cheques and regular business cheques through a fraud machine that can verify the routing number and account number (magnetic ink checker), the ultraviolet light to check the paper, and the watermark checking function, because these paper counterfeiters have gotten very adept at passing off what appears to be legitimate paper. I want to see those verified before they get deposited, and not afterwards.
Perhaps I have been too trusting and have been an “easy mark”. Now I understand why businessmen can become callous and bankers can become impersonal. They have seen too much of this kind of thing cross their desks in the past. Now I have too.
Business Opportunities?
The latest rash of so-called “business opportunities” revolve around someone in the states (let’s say for argument, me), becoming a financial processing agent for oh, let say, either an artist with a family and pets in Great Britain who needs someone in the states to manage their transactions (and it seems there are more than one), or perhaps either a ceramics and textile outfit in Hong Kong, China or a fabric distributor located in Beirut, Lebanon, or other variations along those themes. The latest is in becoming either a shipper of items or in charge of the financial section for such shipping activities. These opportunities present themselves via job postings online. And there are a lot of them!
The usual drift is that if I agree to establish an account, they will provide a salary plus benefits, plus 10% or so for handling funds that will pass through from my account to theirs – except in many instances, it turns out that their out-of the-states “account” is either through Moneygram or Western Union to some unknown name in some city outside the US. Oh, you heard this story somewhere before? Yeah, I wrote about it way back in July, 2006.
Assuming money orders, etc. successfully are processed by a bank, funds can then be pulled from the bank account and sent through either Moneygram or Western Union. The downside is that these funds cannot be reclaimed, once they have been picked up at the other end.
The problem I’ve been having is that so far, I have never gotten past first base in this game and I’m the one getting stung. I have been the prospective easy mark. Well, no more.
In God We Trust
My mother sent me this story recently…
“You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about. Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the husband's employer's home. My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house. The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into how the very wealthy live. The husband's employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself immensely.
As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant that evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband. He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment. Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him. There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped, and a few cigarette butts. Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny. He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure.
How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up? Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value. A smile crept across the man's face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see. She had seen many pennies before!
What was the point of this? "Look at it." He said. "Read what it says." She read the words "United States of America." "No, not that; read further." "One cent?" "No, keep reading." "In God we Trust?" "Yes!" "And?" "And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it!
God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him? Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God's way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful! "
When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, "In God We Trust" and had to laugh. Yes, God, I get the message. It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient...”
Everyone Else Needs A Background Check First
So, “In God We Trust”, but everybody else requires a background check first. I take everyone at face value, until they reveal their true colors. If they prove to be shady characters, I stop doing business with them. Unfortunately, because some banking institutions do not have a cheque processing system that can check cheques before they get deposited, they will close suspected accounts. I was told that even though I am not at fault, their security safeguards are not flexible enough to give me a second chance, even though I am a recipient and not a giver.
I’ve learned my lesson. Wisdom comes from making mistakes and experience comes from knowing you made the mistake before. The wisest ones learn from other’s mistakes and don’t repeat them.
Honesty is Still the Best Policy
The best policy is honesty. And the old saying that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, still holds water.
Benjamin Franklin said this about possible shady situations; “When in doubt, don’t”.
If you are looking for gainful employment, my suggestion is, don’t bother looking at the financial officer or accountant opportunities online that offer a percentage of pass-through funds. My experience shows that they are bogus. Look elsewhere.
Dig Deeper
Money Mules
