Scam Leaves Hill Staffer in the Red

Roll Call (via CAS mailing list) ^ | July 16, 2003 | Damon Chappie

[TheMole]

Tales of the cognitive elite. "I mean I have a master’s degree from Harvard, I’m not stupid." Posted for edumacational purposes only.

[Support Free Republic]

SHOW ME THE MONEY !!!

[txzman]

"I mean I have a master’s degree from Harvard, I’m not stupid."

Oops, I forgot. I 'AM' a Democrat.....'ya think that has somethin' to do wit it?

[ccmay]

I mean I have a master’s degree from Harvard, I’m not stupid.

All master's degrees are not created equal, cupcake. What might yours be, social work, political science, women's studies, hmm?

Any undergraduate engineering major at a a state A & M school is more than a match for a Harvard grad student, outside the hard sciences and engineering. And probably a whole lot less likely to fall for a Nigerian scam, too.

-ccm

[thoughtomator]

Donahue, who was at the time working on the staff of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and now works for Sen. Dick Durban (D-Ill.), ...

Explains a lot, really.

[HAL9000]

Wow, CAS is still going? Good for them.

[Axenolith]

It is immoral to allow a fool and their money to remain together...
Murphy

[Axenolith]

That's "Womyns" studies to us rubes... ;)

[Rocky]

Here's a clue, sweetheart: When you get an e-mail from Nigeria, delete it. Don't even think twice about it. (Duh, how many of these Nigerian scams do we have to hear about before everyone understands?)

[Jay D. Dyson]

Quoting from the article:
He said he was a used car and parts dealer with offices across Africa. He offered Donahue $6,000 for the car and helpfully suggested a way to speed up the transaction.

A client of his in the United States owed him $9,890. He would instruct the client to procure a cashier’s check for that amount and send it to Donahue.

That's where anyone with a lick of sense would have said, "Fine. You get the money from your client and you get me the cash from it, then we'll talk."

Small wonder she got suckered in the scam...

-Jay

[TheMole]

Yep, they're still a good newsletter. They follow all major news stories, and always stress any possible Clinton angle, of which there is a lot. For instance, all the stuff Bill Clinton did and said about Saddam and Osama working together, as compared with what Democrats are saying now. And then there's Hillary ... absolutely no shortage of material.

[HAL9000]

If Hillary runs, I may have to resubscribe. The CS List, CAS and the Prodigy WW forum were the ancestors to FR for Clinton scandal coverage.

[MediaMole]

"I mean I have a master’s degree from Harvard, I’m not stupid."

Education does not equal intelligence. Street smarts are inversely proportional to book smarts.

[ikka]

Last November? When did the Nigerian scam start?

Don't most people know that the thing to do is to call the bank the check is drawn on and read them the numbers on the bottom? They will check it out for you (though you might have to fax the check to them).

[Tall_Texan]

I have no rooting interest here. The Democrat chick from Harvard should have known better. The Credit Union pretends that just because their clerk used to be a checker at Safeway that she's entitled to give out financial advice with impugnity and the Nigerians...hey, mayne they could pay her back with yellowcake!

Bet that chick believes Saudis just love American flight schools too.

[Swordmaker]

Don't most people know that the thing to do is to call the bank the check is drawn on and read them the numbers on the bottom? They will check it out for you (though you might have to fax the check to them).

Good idea... except for one little teeny problem. The scammers have thought of this too!

The crooks merely buy ONE legitimate Cashier's Check, make many counterfeit copies with the correct amounts and numbers for use in their scams. Calling the issuing bank with the info from the counterfeit check only confirms that a check with that number for that amount has been issued, not that THIS PARTICULAR check is legitimate.

This has been done with eBay computer sales where innocent sellers received cashier's checks for laptop computers, confirmed the checks with the issuing bank over the phone, deposited the funds and shipped the computer. Weeks later the fraudulent check is bounced back, the computer is long gone... and the criminals have ALSO cashed the legitimate cashier's check and are gone with the wind.

[general_re]

I've worked in banking long enough to know that anyone who takes the word of a CSR as to whether a check not drawn on that bank is valid or not is skating on very thin ice indeed. I've known plenty of tellers (unfortunately) who would be all too happy to accept a "check" written in yellow crayon on a cocktail napkin. And if you give me a half-hour in front of a computer with a decent scanner and laser printer, I'll produce forgeries that will sail past any teller in the country with ease.

Your advice is the best advice - call the bank that the check is drawn on. Don't rely on your bank to spot forgeries from some other bank - they can't, and you'll be very unhappy with the results, just as this lady above is...

[Swordmaker]

In my previous post I noted that the ebayers were out both the money AND their laptop computers... at least this congressional staffer still has her car!

[general_re]

The crooks merely buy ONE legitimate Cashier's Check, make many counterfeit copies with the correct amounts and numbers for use in their scams. Calling the issuing bank with the info from the counterfeit check only confirms that a check with that number for that amount has been issued, not that THIS PARTICULAR check is legitimate.

There are ways to counter this as well.

[Swordmaker]

There are ways to counter this as well.

Name one that will get the holder use of the funds in any reasonable time...

There is no way that a forgery can be ascertained over the phone or even from a faxed copy... even the actual counterfeit may fool the issuing bank. Some of these were only discovered to be forgeries after duplicates started showing up to be fulfilled at the issuing bank.

This is really a serious problem... it threatens to end the utility of cashier's checks and money orders.