I've Been Scammed, Ripped Off And Want To Warn!

I am feeling pretty stupid and ashamed right now. Let me try to make this short, over a year ago i had applied for any sort of financial help i could get, namely in the form of grants, i filled out dozens of forms on numerous sites, i was in the process of losing my house (now gone) so was desperate to save it. Anyway, a year later (this monday) i recieved a check for 4,950.00 from grantchecks.com, it looked legit, had the watermark and was honored at the bank. The only stipulation, i had to pay 10% commission for brokering the grant (apparantely this company did this for a living)once i paid the commission they'd send the remaining 4,950 dollars. Well, the commission had to paid within 5 days of depositing that check via greendot prepaid card, I went and purchased it, sat down to pay this man his commission, and my bank calls, the check is no good!! I nearly fainted, i already spent 3500 on bills.......now i'm stuck owing the bank, i spent two hours at the bank and police station filing a report, where i was informed i'd never see that money again and the creep will never be found.......I am so dissapointed in myself for being scammed, i'm normally very careful, I now have lost all trust for those i don't know. I haven't told hubby yet, he'll hit the roof, and had to practically beg the bank not freeze my account, which they'd already done, but they agreed to monthly payments until the damage is paid for. I am also disappointed in our banking system, whey on earth should i be responsible wholly, for that money? The bank honored it, i was paying bills off money i had in my account as far as i knew, yet i'm being punished???? Please all, i hate to use the old adage, but if it's too good to be true yada yada.....LOL i learned the hard way, and boy does it hurt:sads:

the man's name is Ronnie Ellison, the check was written off of California National Bank, for some company called Landscape Associates inc.

So sorry to hear this! I hope we all have better days very, very soon.

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Originally Posted by Pegasus

So sorry to hear this! I hope we all have better days very, very soon.

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Thanks and yes i agree somethings gotta give:bow:

It will all be better soon... I know it's hard but try and keep a positive attitude... Although I don't know you, if there is anything I can do to help please let me know...

I am so sorry this happened to you. Shame on these crooks. :nono:

Better days are coming, and hopefully this month. It sounds like something that would happen to me.

[QUOTE=rvalreadydang;183413]I am feeling pretty stupid and ashamed right now. Let me try to make this short, over a year ago i had applied for any sort of financial help i could get, namely in the form of grants, i filled out dozens of forms on numerous sites, i was in the process of losing my house (now gone) so was desperate to save it. {{{{{{{{{{{ Snip }}}}}}}}}}

So sorry to hear about your house.. Sounds like when I had credit cards mounting up and the " get out of debt for pennies on the dollar " company said to me " don't pay any of them ". Then one day I was served a sherrif's sale notice. We'll, I had to file bankrupcy and pay back everything. I am still paying. 850.00 per month, on top of all other living expense bills. I have 3 kids and a wife plus a dog I am caring for. So, here I am a year later with a bill of 850.00 per month, not to mention in Oct. I lost my 7K per month job becuase I exceeded all expectations in my area of sales. I pis##@d off a few people along the way. Mostly managers that made 3-4K per month. They were happy to get rid of me. But I did nothing wrong. I am eager and willing to do what it takes to succeed and I will.

Now, I make 2K per month and if something doesn't shake loose quick, I too am in danger.
Suggestion for you though. I did go to prosper.com and applied to a community of fine people, stated my case and yes there were 156 people that bid on my loan, even in bankrupcy. BUT, I switched jobs 2 weeks ago now and don't have a wage history so that cans that idea. I owe 10,200 and my attorney's fee's have gone from the original 1500 that I wrote a check for to 5020.00 to date. Attorney's suck the lifeblood outtaya.. Anyway, keep up the hope. This investment WILL hit any day now. And if you find a rich person that cares, and wants to help. Send em my way too. But do try prosper.com. It could help your situation?

Don't feel ashamed. You did what you thought would help!!
Rich.:help:

Moved your Scam Alert Here for Allof Rolclub to See. This is the Scam Warning and Report Forum. Thanks.

thanks all, a lesson learned for sure, LOL.......my husband was very understanding, just grinned and said, oh my poor wife, LOL.....anyhoo, I will be the rich one to help me out:wink: and hopefully very soon, I have never given up hope even throughout my trials and tribulations, I guess knowing we can only fall so far helps keep me movitated, time for the getting back up part i'd say:ro_emote:

And on the subject that was mentioned about filing bankruptcy, unfortunately my husband would lose his job, federal employees in security positions are not permitted, go figure, they don't want you to have screwed up credit, but won't allow even debt consolidation or bankruptcy to help climb out of the whole:wacko: they have'nt done his annual clearance check yet, but when they do, he may be out of work when they discover the foreclosure......this rv will really save our hides!

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Originally Posted by neno

Moved your Scam Alert Here for Allof Rolclub to See. This is the Scam Warning and Report Forum. Thanks.

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thankx nenorooni:rolleyes:

try ... www.************/2ya5p9

I'll help you. It will cost you nothing ... Absolutely NOTHING!

Of course I'm a FELON, and a scammer and other things if you believe those good citizens who can vote and carry guns and cheat you at every turn.

You will just have to "Believe".

BCNU ... that's a tiny url link

Sad,

Sorry to hear of your loss, but you should have run it past all of the good people here who have a world of experience in these matters. The cardinal rule is never pay money to receive money, never, and you will be safe. Second rule, never send Western Union or use prepaid card to anyone you don't personally know. Sadly, when you recieve an unsolicited or unexpected check from an unkonwn entity, you can count on it being rubber.

Just to give you an idea how serious this problem is, people are losing millions, so you are not alone. Most of us are trusting individuals, and sadly this a weakness we all share, and the crooks and scammers know this. I received several checks like you describe, and they are all legitimate looking as the computer generated check printing software makes it easy. The scammers use to bait people into sending 10% first, now they send checks our first which shows good faith whereby victims have illusion of trust.

Now be warned, the same scammers will approach you with a recovery scam, so be careful. Most are also mad to be scammed and revenge in recouping money lost is another way people let down their guard, which the scammers also know very well. I cannot tell you how many times the same scammers will play on a persons desperation to recoup their losses only to throw more money at these pretend investigation firms, so watch out.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

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Originally Posted by Offshore-Wealth.com

Sad,

Sorry to hear of your loss, but you should have run it past all of the good people here who have a world of experience in these matters. The cardinal rule is never pay money to receive money, never, and you will be safe. Second rule, never send Western Union or use prepaid card to anyone you don't personally know. Sadly, when you recieve an unsolicited or unexpected check from an unkonwn entity, you can count on it being rubber.

Just to give you an idea how serious this problem is, people are losing millions, so you are not alone. Most of us are trusting individuals, and sadly this a weakness we all share, and the crooks and scammers know this. I received several checks like you describe, and they are all legitimate looking as the computer generated check printing software makes it easy. The scammers use to bait people into sending 10% first, now they send checks our first which shows good faith whereby victims have illusion of trust.

Now be warned, the same scammers will approach you with a recovery scam, so be careful. Most are also mad to be scammed and revenge in recouping money lost is another way people let down their guard, which the scammers also know very well. I cannot tell you how many times the same scammers will play on a persons desperation to recoup their losses only to throw more money at these pretend investigation firms, so watch out.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

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Exactly, this is why i felt more secure, i'll never even consider opening anything that looks, smells or gives off the aura of a check i get in the mail! LOL......thanks for your insight btw, I am waiting next to hear from them threatening to take me to court for the commission, :fryingpan :toofunny:

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Originally Posted by rvalreadydang

Exactly, this is why i felt more secure, i'll never even consider opening anything that looks, smells or gives off the aura of a check i get in the mail! LOL......thanks for your insight btw, I am waiting next to hear from them threatening to take me to court for the commission, :fryingpan :toofunny:

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Interesting,

Sadly it is always the trusting soles like yourself who get burned. This new twist on an old scam is far more effective than the prior schemes where you were led to a decision slowly, little by little with fee on top of fee adding up week by week as you are led to think you are close to pay out. As you can see, they depend on human nature to bait, then extract from you until you have a vested interest in seeing it through to the end.

As I see it now, they use the advance check system to show good faith, as in, they are trusting you, so then you should trust them. It works so well that the old schemes are being dropped in favor of new scam since check writing software is so good, it is easy to dupe people with less time and effort of communicating back and forth as in the past. The only way these scams can be stopped is to disclose them in forums like this. I am certain many people who have read this thread are now informed and will not fall for these scams themselves, so thanks for sharing your information, and again, sorry you got taken.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

Have you heard of Circle of Life? Those crooks will get their's next time around and wonder why they're having the s**t life. Crooks are lazy and just weren't taught Gratitude! Watch the SECRET everyday!!! A bit of ME-TIME wont hurt to embrass our Real Dreams again! And NO! you're not stupid, you had the guts to take the risk to try and do what you felt was right, and most importantly, with you, we all learnt an important lesson. Life is a never-ending school and we're all attending the same school our dear Sweet. Gdnyt from Auz :-)

PS: Can anyone show me how to sign up to this 4EL.BIZ thing everyone's raving about? I cant find the Queue Thread...I wanted to join in rockfish's Linear (1 straight line)

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Originally Posted by ezywealth

Have you heard of Circle of Life? Those crooks will get their's next time around and wonder why they're having the s**t life. Crooks are lazy and just weren't taught Gratitude! Watch the SECRET everyday!!! A bit of ME-TIME wont hurt to embrass our Real Dreams again! And NO! you're not stupid, you had the guts to take the risk to try and do what you felt was right, and most importantly, with you, we all learnt an important lesson. Life is a never-ending school and we're all attending the same school our dear Sweet. Gdnyt from Auz :-)

PS: Can anyone show me how to sign up to this 4EL.BIZ thing everyone's raving about? I cant find the Queue Thread...I wanted to join in rockfish's Linear (1 straight line)

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Interesting,

Sorry to hear you were scammed, but could you explain more on how you came to this conclusion. I like to keep my scam folder up to date, and since I had Circle of Life already listed to watch, let us know what they did to you to call them a crooks.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

What goes around comes around. Those who do bad things will eventually get nailed for it. Scammers will screw up eventually.

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Originally Posted by rvalreadydang

The only stipulation, i had to pay 10% commission for brokering the grant

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This is the first thing that would tip me off to a scam. If someone is offering to send you money, but requiring an up front fee to be paid(not taken out of the payment being offered), you should close the deal straight away and report them to the authorities.

It's just like those "nigerian" 419 scams where they get you to pay money to them before releasing millions to you, but of course, the millions do not exist.

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Originally Posted by rebateFX

This is the first thing that would tip me off to a scam. If someone is offering to send you money, but requiring an up front fee to be paid(not taken out of the payment being offered), you should close the deal straight away and report them to the authorities.

It's just like those "nigerian" 419 scams where they get you to pay money to them before releasing millions to you, but of course, the millions do not exist.

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Good point,

Recently a new twist on Nigerian scams, they send you a check first, then ask for a fee to be deducted after check is cashed, via Western Union, and as it takes up to 10 days for check to be discovered as a fraud since they are using stolen information for accounts, you are stuck with loss if you fall for this deal. Most people let their guard down when they receive funds first, then are being trusted to send proceeds later, very clever since most are trustworthy people.

Rule number one, NEVER, NEVER use Western Union for anything other than personal friend to friend transfer. Every single one of these scams uses the non reversable no valid identification cash transfer system, so there is your tip off when in doubt, NEVER USE Western Union. This includes the scam with regards to selling your vehicle, or purchasing one, NEVER use Western Union.

Good luck and Health to all, Mike

Oh beleive me, i've learned, and kick myself in the arse everyday, i thought i was smarter than that, LOL......

Was the U.S.P.S. involved in any part of this transaction? If so, contact your local U.S. Postal Inspectors office and file a complaint with them. If is falls within the Postal Regulation Laws, THEY will find the guy and put him and his people into a Federal Prison for a very, very long time!

There was a kid serving time at McNeal Island Prison for stealing a half sheet of stamps. He got 20 years without any chance of parole.

DesertWolf