Posted by Anonymous on 10/13/05 10:58am
Msg #70235

I am too embarrassed to use my real name

I responded to an email from SinoSteel, asking me to be a collection representative. It was for 10% commission of what is collected. Not too bad, since the client they wanted me to approach owed 1.35 million. I approached the "debtor" and he agreed to send payment of $58,000. My cut would be $5800. I received the check, deposited it into my business account, and waited for it to clear so that I could wire the balance of $55,200 to the "creditor". Not bad for 2 weeks work, right? WRONG! I went to the bank to send the funds, and the check had not yet cleared. Yesterday I received a call from BOA security, telling me the check was a counterfeit, and that the funds were not going to be available. I was shocked! Today, I tried to pull online banking up on BOA and found that my accounts (plural; we have several businesses and personal accounts with them) have been completely shut down and BOA will not allow us to have another BOA account. I am to clear my funds out and be on my way. Not only was I rooked, but now BOA says I am too big a risk to be an account holder. Normally, I am not a fool. I was presented with a contract, etc. and they were still a bogus company. The scam is this: They find out what bank you have an account with, counterfeit a check on another big account with that bank, and since most banks don't hold funds between bank acct's of the same bank, they want you to wire the amt. immediately.Then when funds are wired, you find out it was a bogus check, and the bank then hold YOU responsible for the missing funds.
The only thing I really lost was my bank accounts. I have others with Wachovia, so nothing out of pocket. But if I had wired funds, I would be responsible to BOA for those funds.
Be careful out there!

Reply by Allison_Mich on 10/13/05 11:04am
Msg #70238

It's part of Identity theft which is the fastest growing crime out there. If you need help clearing your name let me know. I can help with them.

Allison in Michigan

Reply by Tennessee on 10/13/05 11:13am
Msg #70241

In the past 6 months either myself or close friends have seen different variations of this scam. It involves everything and anything, pets...cosmetics....lotteries....but the common denominator is this: The certified checks/cashiers checks. Most folks think they're "good as gold", NOT. We've had checks delivered thru every over night service there is but it looks like they lean on FedX. You got lucky even though it may not seem like that right now. Always I run this through my head "if it sounds too good to be true" and so far, knock on wood, I've made smart choices. It all looks and sounds legit...then they move on to another area. Thanks for letting us know they've got a new slant on things and tell everyone you know because that's the only way to put a hitch in their get-along!

Reply by The Rose Investigstions and Process Service Inc. - David B. Martz on 10/13/05 11:34am
Msg #70250

As being a Private Detective Agency and a Licensed Collection Agency i ran a background on SinoSteel it took all of about 10 seconds to pull them up as a Scam. I'm sorry you fell for this but as stated you got off light. As far as BOA suspending your accounts this would be normal
action with any bank. As a side note no legit company will offer you a collection account thru a email out of the blue.

Reply by Charles_CA on 10/13/05 12:09pm
Msg #70261

Greetings:

The unfortunate thing is that there are actually companies out there who are legitimate that have similar requirements. I do a lot of financila transactions overseas and handle such things as sight drafts, protests, inspections etc. There should have been two things that stood out blaring danger (I've received several of thos requests myself). One they want you to put the money in your own account. A legitimate company would never allow you to comingle funds: normally the funds are deposited in a collection or escrow account. The other thing that should have screamed run was the comission. Usually if it sounds too good to be true it is.

Financial service is a fun and lucrative thing to do but not that lucrative. Figure that rewards are usually comensurate with risk and hardship, on your dquation it didn't make sense, and now you pay the price for lack of vigilance.

Reply by E_FL on 10/13/05 12:39pm
Msg #70270

My question is, how does SinoSteel benefit? In other words, did they make money out of this scam? All I got is that BOF closed the accounts, but was there money taken from these accounts?

Reply by DMARTZ_IN on 10/13/05 1:11pm
Msg #70276

In this case SinoSteel was one and the same companies. They were the company that provided the service and they were the company that owed for the services. If this would have went thru SinoSteel would have made $55,200. What the Scammer was hoping for was that the person given the collection case had enough funds in their account that they would go on and wire them the money before the check cleared. In corporate business, checks of this amount are wrote and deposited quite often.

Reply by E_FL on 10/13/05 1:46pm
Msg #70290

oh I see.

Reply by NY_TaxLady on 10/13/05 4:28pm
Msg #70329

I think there was a post a couple of weeks back about a similiar scam. In that case it was emailed to the FBI.