MOUNDS, Okla — Laurel Zorn just wanted to sell an old sofa, so he posted it on Craigslist.
He never expected text messages from someone across the country offering to buy it, nor did he expect her to send a cashier's check for $1,850 for a sofa listed for $250.
Zorn told 2 News at first, the woman said the extra was to pay the movers, so he needed to cash the check and use the extra to pay them.
As a retired police officer. He immediately knew this was a scam.
Another common ploy scammers use to trick victims out of their money is to get the victim to cash the check and send some or all back through apps like Venmo or gift cards.
Zorn showed us the check itself and pointed out red flags anyone can look for to protect against check cashing fraud. The name of the bank was real. Scammers often use the name or logo of real entities to make their fake checks look legit. But, there was no address for the bank.
So Zorn called the real bank.
"When I talked to them," he said as he pointed to the check number, "They don't start they don't start their checks out that way." He learned the check number was fake.
So, Zorn told 2 News he was surprised and frustrated when he tried to report the phone check and provide the information he gathered to local, state, and even some federal law enforcement agencies.
"They said we can't do anything," he said. "You're not a victim."
Not a victim because he didn't try to cash the fake check.
Zorn wants people to know how much this type of crime costs victims.
The Federal Trade Commission's "A Scammy Snapshot of 2023" shows that victims lost a combined $10 billion to fraud, up from $8.8 billion the year before.
To protect yourself the FTC has lots of resources and many variations of schemes fraudsters use to trick you out of your hard-earned cash.
But in short,
- Be suspicious of when someone tried to over pay by check and wants the difference refunded.
- Don't try to cash the check.
- Do contact the bank it is allegedly drawn on to verify if it is real or fake.
Contact the Problem Solvers:
- 918-748-1502
- problemsolvers@kjrh.com
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