NATALIE ANDREWS - Daily Herald | Posted: Saturday, July 28, 2007 11:00 pm
When landlord Regina Griffin, of Griffin Properties, got an e-mail from a foreign exchange student coming to UVSC she did not sense anything unusual.
At first the e-mail seemed legitimate and she started corresponding about a room for rent with the prospective student, who said she was from South Africa.
But when the alleged exchange student-to-be made a fishy request, Griffin suspected something was wrong. The student said her dad needed money in travelers checks, and since they didn't have those in South Africa, she wanted to write her rent check for a little more money and have Griffin send the extra money back.
The scheme sounded like one many receive in their inbox, some receiving it several times a day. Police and banks refer to it as the Nigerian scam.
But when a $3,800 check arrived in the mail, Griffin wasn't just receiving e-mails, she had officially become part of the scam.
And just last week, Griffin received a $4,500 check from a girl in England wanting to rent her property and study at Utah Valley State College. A whole year plus deposit for Griffin's properties would cost $4,150.
She took them to the bank to test their legitimacy, and in both cases Griffin was denied the money.
"If they're hitting me this hard, then what are they doing to people who think they are honestfi" she said.
Tom Kelly, spokesman for Chase Bank, said the scam has been around for years, but with people posting property on the Internet, whether to rent or purchase, there are more opportunities for scammers to tell their sob story.
Luckily, Kelly said the scam is old -- basically a variation of counterfeiting a $50 bill and getting change back -- and thus easy to detect.
"If someone sends you a check for the right amount, that's a good sign," he said. "If someone sends you a check for the wrong amount and wants money back, that's a bad sign."
Still, getting funds in a cashier's check or a wire transfer directly into a bank account will guarantee the funds, Kelly said. Checks can take a while to clear, and a bank will usually guarantee the funds the day after a check is deposited, so it looks like the check was good -- but if the check doesn't clear, the money will be taken back out.
Another red flag for Griffin was the fact that the checks arrived in the mail via UPS and were sitting on her porch when she got home. She thought if someone was sending thousands of dollars through the mail, wouldn't they want a signature confirmation that it didn't fall into the wrong handsfi That was, after all, supposed to be their housing for the school year.
The Federal Trade Commission said the scam has reached "epidemic" proportions, and warns anyone who even receives an e-mail to be careful because those who have traveled out of the country to meet scammers have been injured and killed.
Still, Kelly said as long as one operates on the philosophy that "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," they are still OK to post items online.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.