SMITHFIELD – A local school student was defrauded after applying for what he thought was a part-time job. The 18 year-old received an email on his school email account encouraging him to apply for work.
Thinking the email was legitimate, he replied with his personal information. He received a response that he would be prepaid for work. He received a check for $2,000, and was instructed to cash the check and immediately return $500 to the sender.
He did as instructed, however the $2,000 check turned out to be counterfeit, and by the time he found out, the $500 had already been returned.
Check overpayment scams are widespread. If you accept payment by check, ask for a check drawn on a local bank, or a bank with a branch in the area. If the person demands you wire the funds, walk away from the transaction immediately.
Detectives are investigating.
Apparently we don’t teach common sense in schools today….
A fool and his money…
Scammers will continue to scam until everybody stops falling for all the various scams. People need to educate themselves to prevent being scammed. YouTube is a great source to learn about all the scams going on. Just search “scams” and you will find many videos that deal with all the different scams.