- Report: #1375705
Complaint Review: Sears Spokane Employees Federal Credit Union - Spokane Washington
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Sears Spokane Employees Federal Credit Union
4700 N. Division St. Spokane, 99207 Washington, USA
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Sears Spokane Employees Federal Credit Union remitter - Joshua Vollmer received a check for payment fof wrapping my car and advertising for Baskin-Robbins ice cream. Read about it and sounds like a scam. Spokane Washington
I answered an advertisement via email that said I could use my car for advertising and make $400 a month. Later, it changed to $400 a week which was the first signal something was wrong. Then, they said I would get a check and it would include the money the auto detailer would need when they came and put the advertising on my car. Did not sound right so I looked it up on the internet and found info that made it sound like a fairly common scam.
Today I received a check for $1970.68 and will not cash it or deposit it. Also have the emails received from these people.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Sears Spokane Employees FCU
Spokane,Washington,
USA
Sears Spokane Employees is a victim as well
#2UPDATE Employee
Thu, June 01, 2017
Hello, my name is Mark Smith, and I am the CEO of Sears Spokane Employees FCU. I would like to thank you for posting this scam warning, however, I do feel that categorizing Sears Spokane Employees FCU as a bad check writer is an error, as the check you received is in fact a counterfeit check and was never issued by our credit union.
The scam that you are referring to is a variant of the Nigerian 419 scam. This type of scam has been ongoing for decades and comes in many forms from Mystery Shopper scams, car sales scams, rental property scams, ect, ect. The common theme is that they over pay you with a counterfeit check, then ask that you wire a portion back to them. The hope is that you will wire the funds back before you discover that the check is fake. The checks that they use for this scam are pieced together from checks that they have had prior victims of the scan and send to them, they then modify the image and begin production. Aside from being the CEO of the credit union, I am also a commissioned fraud investigator and work with law enforcement agencies across the country on such matters and can tell you that Sears Spokane Employees FCU is only one of many institutions and private companies that have been victimized by these scammers as well thru the fraudulent use of our names and the degradation of our reputation.
I am glad that you did not attempt to negotiate the check in question, and you did the right thing to report it. In the future, should you or anyone reading this receive a check that you believe may be counterfeit, I recommend the following course of action:
1. Call the institution that the check is drawn on by using Google or Bing to get the number, do not use the Phone # on the check, and verify the validity of the check.
2. If the check is NOT valid, DO NOT attempt to negotiate the check! Doing so will make you an accessory to the fraud.
3. Contact your local law enforcement agency and report the fraud
4. If you received the check via the US postal service, contact you local postmaster. If by UPS or FedEx, contact their local office.
Again, thank you for reporting this scam, and we are glad that you did the right thing by not attempting to cash the check.
Sincerely,
Mark Smith, CEO
Sears Spokane Employees FCU
