<p>Iron Maiden, I do thank you for the advice. As well as yours Jym626, I could use a little tidying right now.</p>
<p>(I’m a guy, but that really doesn’t matter, I still appreciate everyone’s advice)</p>
<p>Yes, my parents have been banking with the same bank for a very long time now and do hold a good record with them. Do you think asking my father to call the collections committee (in addition to myself) would be a good idea?</p>
<p>I just want to say, thank you everyone, I am finally starting to see a smooth way out, I wish I hadn’t sent the letter, but I have learned.</p>
<p>Sorry for the gender confusion, Burghstudent!! Something somewhere made me think you were a “she”. </p>
<p>Yeah, if I were you, I’d use every contact I had to do damage control. If that means getting your parents to intervene, I’d do it if I were you. You definitely want to preserve your credit history and banking history. It could have a big impact on your in the future.</p>
<p>If the bank involved is a very small locally owned bank you might have a shot. If it is a branch of a regional or national bank then you are most likely out of luck. </p>
<p>The letter that you sent won’t help I’m afraid. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Ironmaiden-
I’ve had good luck at getting issues addressed with the local branch of my big megabank. It doesn’t hurt to try, especially if OP’s parents are valued customers (if such a thing still exists with in the banking system!)</p>
<p>Since your parents have a good record with this bank, perhaps you could get them to work with you and a branch manager to arrange a loan that they co-sign, with a specific payment plan. That would put your parents on the hook if you miss a payment – but it would also turn the problem into a potentially positive result, as you would actually be building your credit record with your payments. The bank could actually set this up as a credit card account with an upper limit of the amount you owe – this means that the bank would be charging a hefty interest rate-- but that would also give you the option of making very small monthly payments during the school year, and then catching up and making larger payments during the summer when you could work full time.</p>
<p>The possibility that something like this might happen is one reason that I’ve stuck with a local bank and trust company. It’s much easier to communicate with the people who are running the bank when it’s local. Since there are people at this bank who know you and your family, it might help with your dilemma.</p>
<p>That’s an interesting idea, Calmom. One other thought-- The OP’s parents might have some savings bonds stashed away (we’d just mentioned these to our boys who had no recollectionthat they had these) that were intended for him when he was out of school. This might be a good use for some of them, expecially if any have matured . The EE bonds arent earning a very good interest rate right now (but the I bonds are doing GREAT! Don’t touch those if you can help it!)</p>
<p>The Oprah Winfrey show just aired a segment on these Nigerian scams this very afternoon. Knowledge of these scams has been out there for years. I thought everyone pretty much knew about them by now, but apparently, a lot of people are still in the dark. Good luck resolving this very painful issue, BurghStudent. Don’t let your pride keep you from reaching out to your parents for help. I’m sure they love you, and wouldn’t want you to have to deal with this alone, and certainly wouldn’t want it to ruin your financial future.</p>
<p>I would go in with your parents and talk to the highest ranking person there. And look contrite and keep a hold of your tongue. You might have a chance to bring down the amount the bank wants out of you.</p>
<p>Burgh student, my freshman son came home with an identical tale to yours - tutoring ad on craigslist, many e-mails from the supposed parent with details about the child and the subjects needed, and finally, a large “company check” made out to him “by mistake” - “Oh, just take what you need for the books and materials, then send me back the rest,” says the parent.</p>
<p>Fortunately, this is where it stopped, because my son proposed an alternative that was quickly denied, and it got his suspicions up. However, you shouldn’t feel bad about getting caught in the net of what are clearly very experienced con artists who prey on new adults. If you ever have your own business, you’ll meet some of them again. In the meantime, thank you for letting people know about the scam -keep educating your peers! You are doing a lot to put these people out of business.</p>
<p>Not to be harsh, OP, but here in the real world, parents hiring tutors for their kids do not pay them in full in advance nor do they pay them more and ask the tutor to forward the funds to another party. Here in the real world, we pay the tutor after the session or at the end of the week, perhaps, with a personal check or maybe cash, handed over by the student or the parent. </p>
<p>I honestly do not know what you were thinking to participate in this guy’s requests – you must be very naive.</p>
<p>^^^^ Trusting people get taken advantage of. Sorry you were burned, OP. Sorry posters are being harsh to you. I am sure you feel bad enough as it is.</p>
<p>That brings up another point, though: while we should not be harsh on OP for getting conned, the situation might have ended differently if OP had simply sought the advice of his parents before cashing the check.</p>
<p>I bring this up because my son had something similar a couple of years back – except I think in his case the company was going to hire him for something different, and the check came earlier on in the process, unsolicited. I think it was the Mystery Shopper advance check scam – see [AG</a> - Mystery Shopper Counterfeit Check Scam 6/2008](<a href=“http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-34739_20942-194014--,00.html]AG”>Mystery Shopper Counterfeit Check Scam) - in that, the fraudulent check just arrives in the mail. </p>
<p>Well… the first thing my son did was call me (and probably his dad as well) to ask what we thought. He also scrutinized the fake check very, very closely and discovered the fraud himself – I think that he figured out that the routing number didn’t match up for the bank upon it was drawn – but the point is-- he ran into something that looked odd, he called someone older & wiser and trusted for advice.</p>
<p>Although it may seem you have been harsh on me, I really do appreciate it. I have learned a valuable lesson and it has awoken (re-awoken for those that are wiser) in my family. Maybe we could have run into such a scam but a much larger amount and fell for that. It is better we have been warned at least now and it wasn’t too big. </p>
<p>I plan on going to the bank with my parents and talking to the manager. It makes most sense since we are familiar with that branch. If they can decrease the amount, or make fair monthly payments, I will be happy. </p>
<p>I was very naive and didn’t tell my parents, I wish I had been wiser, but now I have to work with what I got. I’ll tell you one thing, finals have made me forget all about it!</p>
<p>At least OP can blame his youth and inexperience! I’m sure that he didn’t know enough about the banking system to realize that just because the bank accepts a check and “credits” your account, that doesn’t mean that the money order or check is good and that they (the bank) won’t come back later and reverse the deposit if the check turns out bad.</p>
<p>I just read an article in the paper about these kinds of scams and some of them are quite elaborate. I remember the story of one personal trainer who was asked to provide services for the daughter of a general who would be coming into the country soon. She checked out the general. He did have a daughter. Payment was about $900 and made by international money order. Looked legit to the personal trainer. </p>
<p>But instead of sending 1 money order for $900, 4 money orders were sent, each for $900. Oops, personal trainer called and offered to mail back the extra money orders. Not necessary–just deposit the money orders and wire us the amount for the 3 extra money orders. Personal trainer thought that was weird but deposited the money orders. </p>
<p>Suspicions aroused, the personal trainer then did nothing. Needless to say, the money orders were all a scam. As it was, she didn’t lose anything. But she came close.</p>
<p>Lots of naive or confused people out there…cheap lesson for OP, compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost by adults who should have known better.</p>
<p>I agree that if you have some doubts about a transaction or something that someone wants you to do, it makes good sense to talk to somebody else about it. Parents are good sounding boards, until they get old and start calling YOU about that sort of stuff.</p>
<p>OP, what are you waiting for? Why have you not talked to the bank yet? Given the letter you sent them and the time that has passed every day makes it less likely they will work with you. It looks like you simply passes a bad check, taunted them, and don’t care at all. </p>
<p>Unless the bank is VERY small the branch manager won’t be able to help. They will have to send the issue to superiors. </p>
<p>Don’t your hopes up. There is a slight chance they will work with you on payments but virtually no chance of reducing the debt. Banks do not forgive debt from bad checks - they do not want to set a precident.</p>
<p>Have you checked your credit report? This will destroy your credit.</p>
<p>Another scam I get regularly is I’ll get an email from my bank (sounds very official) or a web site like Ebay or PayPal saying there is a security issue with my PW and ID and I need to go to their site to reset my PW, of course I would need to give my social security number. If you do look carefully, you’ll realize it is a bogus site. It is a way for them to steal your identity. You should only go through those company’s official site to change your profile.</p>
<p>Of course, the OP was naive. But so are a lot of people, some experienced enough to know better! If there weren’t, the scams would have died out long ago - they’re only still around because they WORK!</p>
<p>So remember, OP, you’re in pretty good company. Deal with it, be smarter next time, but don’t beat yourself up too badly.</p>
<p>Seems Craiglist is the latest conduit for easy fraud.
D/S had a similar experience looking for a roomate to share an apt.
Put an ad and had a reply from someone coming from Spain to finish up school.
Mind you these people continued the contact for OVER a month with e-mails & pictures of the apt going back & forth.</p>
<p>HOWEVER the minute they proposed sending a “check from a previous employer to us” to pay the deposit and then send the balance for airfare to the US the deal was dead.</p>
<p>This is almost worth it’s own thread tiled “CRAIGLISTS SCAMS”</p>
<p>^^A friend of mind, a bright, experienced woman in her late 50’s was also almost scammed by advertising for a roommate on Craigslist. Supposedly a middle-aged woman was coming here from Britain for something or other blah blah blah… lots of emails went back and forth, and then came the check in advance to help the woman bring her car over from England. My friend almost deposited the check, but was smart enough to go into the bank and ask them to look carefully at the banquecheck. Something made her decide to do that-- she almost just put it in the ATM. Fortunately she didnt do that. And of course after she began to ask questions of the suppos-ed roommated the correspondence stopped. These scammers are slick, and do prey on the innocent. It is terrible.</p>