See my edited post just above yours, ThomasJ.

If you catch the item in time to return it befor¬

According to my state banking assoc. they are: CA, OR, CO, TN, HI, TX, ID, UT, MA, VT, NE WV, NH, WI, ND. Kansas and Missouri legislatures adopted it this year too.

We have had a large experience with QChex, what we learned this week is that you can fax them a copy of the check on company letterhead to 1-858-675-0579. A telephone number for Carrie Quinn account executive at Qchex is 1-800-303-2620 ext 300. We have sent numerous checks by fax this week and they have provided information as to who and where the check originated as well as the email the individual used th set up the account. Hope this information helps.

Our bank has been "hit" with about 10 of these this week. We've also see a bunch of conterfeit postal money orders coming through.

I really hate smart criminals... and feel sorry for un-educated customers.

And I can't imagine that QChex doesn't have a clue as to what's going on. They should be charged as well, period.

I have just started to research this QChex thing because I may be a victim, I guess...

An person I've only chatted with sparingly has just sent me a QChex check for over $3K. I haven't physically received it yet, but the above alone set off some red flags, of course.

What I'm trying to understand, and I'll be honest here: if someone sends me a check and I either deposit it or just take it to a Check Cashing Store to get the funds, how liable am I for it if it is in fact fraudulent? I mean, how am I supposed to know?

If I try to deposit it and it bounces, sure. If Check Cashing Store refuses to honor it for whatever reason, sure. But if neither of the above happens, how liable am I?

It hasn't cost me anything... yet. The person is asking me to take the check, cash/deposit it, and send them the amount minus $400 for my services - I'm no idiot, I know it's a scam and I'm not about to do what they suggest.

I have everything documented and believe me I'm doing my due diligence on this, but I'm wondering what's stopping anyone from cashing the check wherever and pocketing the money themselves?

There is an interesting report on msnbc.com today (May24). Titled Easy Check Fraud Technique draws Scrutiny. There is some discussion about QChex! We found this very interesting - QChex makes no attempts to verify the identity of people wanting to purchase their checks. QChex COO Danforth said that banks should bear the blame for any fruad committed using QChek systems. Good reading!

Thomas, what county are you in in PA? I can't remember. I am checking to see if we have been it with any of these.

Kaybee,

Check your private messages.

Got it. Thanks.

I am just a customer of a bank. Some how a man using Qchex has managed to cash 3 checks against my savings account. Even the bank doesn't know how they did it. I called Qchex that Carrie hung up on me. I had my local police fax them a letter asking for the info.They said I faxed it called me a Liar and said it was my fault. Yeah I very much think Qchex needs to be investigated. Like the lady selling her VW Qchex knows full what they are a major part of this scam. But they are trying to play innocent also. If they participate in the fraud knowingly they need jail time too.

I am just a customer of a bank. Some how a man using Qchex has managed to cash 3 checks against my savings account. Even the bank doesn't know how they did it. I called Qchex that Carrie hung up on me. I had my local police fax them a letter asking for the info.They said I faxed it called me a Liar and said it was my fault. Yeah I very much think Qchex needs to be investigated. Like the lady selling her VW Qchex knows full what they are a major part of this scam. But they are trying to play innocent also. If they participate in the fraud knowingly they need jail time too.

Mike-
Just to make sure I understand what happened:
Did the drafts actually have your savings account number on them, or did the scammer cash fraudulent items drawn on another account against your savings?

he did 2 things He printed checks out from Qchex with my name address and savings acount number on them. So far I have 3 people call me that got them. Plus some how he was able to do an electronic check also against my savings account.We Cought the paper checks but the electronic checks went through

I have one of these checks right here in my hand. If anyone wants information on it, e-mail me at kbowman007@yahoo.com it is the second one that I have recieved from an individual in Nigeria.

I received a Qchex check yesterday for over $5,000. A woman I met online about a month ago, who calls herself lady_hughes2005, aka Kim Hughes, supposedly from Kent England UK, claims to be unable to cash checks in Abuja, Nigeria (where she is presently on assignment for her company) and asked if I would set up a Bank of America acct with my name on it so she could have the company that owes her $$$ wire the money to that account, and then I could (somehow??) send her some of it. Ding, ding, ding...the bells went off like crazy!! I played along with this, but had not set up the acct, in hopes of catching "her". Ha. My States Attorney General at first said to send them all the information. When I called them to see what was happening, as this woman and I were still in continuous contact and I wanted to know what to do, they said the state can do nothing and to contact the Secret Service. I contacted my local branch of the SS and they said to email them all the info I had collected (names, addresses, phone #s, etc..) and they would enter it into a data base they had, but that really nothing could be done to catch the person or group involved. The Nigerian gov't does not cooperate and we have no jurisdiction over there. Education is the only way to stop these people. That is why I am writing. To warn you that even DATING SITES and Instant Messaging are being used by these scammers to pick up people to "befriend" in order to scam them . They are quite clever and convincing and will take quite a while to develop a "relationship" before saying they are "low" or "depressed" and when you ask why they say they are having money problems, due to working abroad and being unable to cash checks. Qchex is being used to send the "money" that you are to deposit (I am sending the check I received to the Secret Service). If I had opened that acct with Bank of Amer., I wonder if money would have been wired to me. That is originally what she wanted to do. So, I would look out for wired money, too. This woman even went so far as to place a call to me to see if I had gotten the check yet. I will do a lot of investigating on my own as well as sending the information to the Secret Service, who claims I have nothing to worry about in terms of safety. I wonder how true that is since the Qchex has the name of a person (Michael R. Corbett)from NY, NY and the phone call she placed to me came thru from Ontario. Anyone have any advice on my safety and how I can further investigate?

Definitely a scam. They IM'd me as well. They love that BUZZ button! Can be very convincing, but do NOT cash any of these checks as the back side of the checks will then have your acct #'s on them and they can make counterfeit checks and steal from our acct that way.

Anymore, I would also be wary of the person wanting to wire you money. On a Qchex I saw recently our customer said he was expecting a wire to his account. He provided the wire information and the person used it to have Qchex create a check from his account instead.

Many times what happens as well is that instead of wiring money to your account, the scammer will Fedex a counterfeit check to your bank with instructions to deposit it to your account. You call in to check your balance and think your wire has arrived when in reality it was a counterfeit check deposited to your account.

Quote:

---

Anyone have any advice on my safety and how I can further investigate?

---

What purpose does it serve for you to "further investigate" as:

1. you are already aware it is fraudulent
2. will be sending the item to the secret service
3. you fear for your safety.

Quit answering their IMs (yes, you can block them), block their emails, or change your email and IM address. Continuing to correspond with them is irresponsible on your part. Let the secret service do their job; unless you have the resources to go to Canada, New York City, and Nigeria, you are wasting time and effort. You may even want to close yourt current bank accounts and open new ones, or at least ask your bank to flag yours to not accept pre-authorized drafts.

I was just about to add a post about a customer of ours when I read the post from LifeNotFair. I work for a community bank in Iowa and, in the last 30 days, had a customer attempt to make two separate deposits of $6500: one was a demand draft and the other "electronically signed" check -- both were from Qchex. Luckily, our teller knew this was unusual for the customer and put holds on both deposits, which of course came back as counterfeit. His story is a little different than LifeNotFair's -- this woman was supposedly here and they were "dating". But she asked him to help her out by depositing checks into his account for her business -- it's interesting that the checks were actually payable to our customer! The "girlfriend" has now supposedly gone back to England. So, it's not just an internet auction scam, but like other frauds has pieces to the never-ending puzzle.