I’ve written here about the lottery scams where a consumer receives a notice in the mail informing them that they have won the lottery, complete with an enclosed check.

The recipient is instructed to cash the check and send a portion of the money back to the sender to pay for “taxes” on the winnings. The problem is that the check is a fake that is good enough to often fool banks into cashing the check and the victim is left to repay the bank for any of the funds that were send back to the scam artists.

The scam from this story takes a different form and preys on people who are offering various services via web sites that offer classified-type listings.

A young woman who was offering babysitting service was sent a check for $3000 by a potential client who asked her to cash the check and keep $650 for herself and return $2,350 to him.

You guessed it. The check was a fake and the poor woman was left holding the bag and is responsible for repaying the $2,350 to the bank.

Anyone asking you to do something like this is most likely trying to victimize you using this type of scam.

Welcome back!