Forged check scam targeting BU students
A number of Boston University students have reported receiving the following email from an individual claiming to work for LinkShare Corporation, an ecommerce business:
Good Day, We received your resume from your university/college career services and we would like to know if you are still searching for a job/position. Any interested applicant can please get back to us with immediate effect. Thanks for your co-operation. Regards, Michael Ferguson.
While LinkShare Corporation is a legitimate online marketing service, the perpetrators of the fraud have set up a fraudulent Hotmail.com email account that uses the LinkShare business name.
The job/position involves the victim acting as a middleman whose job it is to receive business checks via Federal Express from a buyer and cash them using his or her own checking account and then to forward the money via Money Gram to a third party vendor. The victim is instructed via email to deduct 10% for their pay and then wire the remaining money to the third party. While the company name and banking information printed on the checks is real, the checks themselves are forgeries.
Any victim that deposits these checks into their personal bank account will be notified by their bank that the checks are forgeries and will then be required to reimburse their bank. Even though the forged checks are cleared through your bank, if they are returned by the issuing (payor) bank to your banking institution as forgeries you will be liable for the money.
There are numerous variations of this forged check scheme so you are strongly urged not to take part in any similar transactions. In particular, you should avoid taking part in any transaction in which you are requested to cash a check by anyone not personally known and trusted by you.
If we receive any tickets or call about this scam, please assign them to Sean Pfeiffer – sean@bu.edu.