Man alerts authorities to Internet scheme (MUST READ)
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2005 10:45 am
By STEVE STOLER / WFAA ABC 8
The FBI is investigating an Internet scheme that promises North Texans easy money by working from home.
Better Business Bureau officials are warning consumers about the offer, which tells people they can work from home as an escrow agent with no start-up fees. It said the company will send you a check, and you in turn send out a check and collect a commission.
Brandon Riley received a check for $6,000 from a Flower Mound couple. All-State Escrow, as the firm is called, then instructed him to mail a cashier's check to a man named Antoine in Moscow.
"Had I deposited this check into my account, number one they would have frozen my account, which would've been my business account," Riley said. "I would have had no access to any funds, ingoing or outgoing."
Riley became suspicous and called the Iowa bank named on the check he received; they told him there were insufficient funds to cover the check. He then contacted the Flower Mound couple listed on the check, who said they never wrote it.
"The scam is, the check you receive is bogus, and even though you may deposit it into your bank and send that cashier's check out, there's no funds behind it," said the BBB's Jeanette Kopko. "You're out thousands of dollars; your account gets frozen. It's a big headache."
The culprits apparently stole parts of a legitimate website to create their fake one; they even used the Better Business Bureau logo.
"They are not a member of the Better Business Bureau anywhere," Kopko said. "Even if they were a member, they couldn't put it on their website in this way."
Riley worries he may have given too much personal information to the people behind the scheme. He said he's learned a lesson.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," he said.
The FBI is investigating the All-State Escrow Internet scheme.
BBB officials said consumers should be wary of any easy-money offers, even it the ad displays their seal of approval. They're asking anyone who may have become a victim in this or similar schemes to give them a call.
The FBI is investigating an Internet scheme that promises North Texans easy money by working from home.
Better Business Bureau officials are warning consumers about the offer, which tells people they can work from home as an escrow agent with no start-up fees. It said the company will send you a check, and you in turn send out a check and collect a commission.
Brandon Riley received a check for $6,000 from a Flower Mound couple. All-State Escrow, as the firm is called, then instructed him to mail a cashier's check to a man named Antoine in Moscow.
"Had I deposited this check into my account, number one they would have frozen my account, which would've been my business account," Riley said. "I would have had no access to any funds, ingoing or outgoing."
Riley became suspicous and called the Iowa bank named on the check he received; they told him there were insufficient funds to cover the check. He then contacted the Flower Mound couple listed on the check, who said they never wrote it.
"The scam is, the check you receive is bogus, and even though you may deposit it into your bank and send that cashier's check out, there's no funds behind it," said the BBB's Jeanette Kopko. "You're out thousands of dollars; your account gets frozen. It's a big headache."
The culprits apparently stole parts of a legitimate website to create their fake one; they even used the Better Business Bureau logo.
"They are not a member of the Better Business Bureau anywhere," Kopko said. "Even if they were a member, they couldn't put it on their website in this way."
Riley worries he may have given too much personal information to the people behind the scheme. He said he's learned a lesson.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," he said.
The FBI is investigating the All-State Escrow Internet scheme.
BBB officials said consumers should be wary of any easy-money offers, even it the ad displays their seal of approval. They're asking anyone who may have become a victim in this or similar schemes to give them a call.