Any business owners here?

[Hawkeye21 2,390]

If you are a business owner or work in a management position, have you been dealing with a lot of fraud lately?  The past few months we have been dealing a lot with it.  The scammers are pretending to buy a large item, like farm equipment.  They mail a check that looks to be real from another business, using their actually banking information.  They hope you deposit it right away and then they cancel the purchase shortly after and ask the have the funds wired back to them.  They try to do this before your bank notifies you that the check is bad.  Not only have we received these checks but they have even issued checks with our name and recently closed account.

[posty 2,662]

That sucks…. If everyone that tries to scam people out of money would put these talents to good use imagine how much better this world would be…

I guess you will have to take payments that will give you instant feedback if it is good or not, especially on big purchase items... It sucks for the customers the are legit, but you must protect your business…

[Gladiators 1,973]

Nothing out of the ordinary. People try to cash fraudulent checks, but we have positive pay on our accounts, so the bank rejects the checks.

Your situation isn’t applicable to my business. We work on large projects, with large companies that, for the most part,  have a long history. 

[Gladiators 1,973]

I may, technically, have an instance of fraud going on. End customer on a project is a publicly traded company. They have initiatives to work with small businesses. They hired a small GC to manage our company for work at one of their manufacturing facilities. That small GC owes us $220k because they took the funds obtained from the end customer and, illegally, used those funds for something else. Small GC is now working to secure a $5M contract with a with another publicly traded company. As soon as they receive the $2.5M deposit, they will finally pay us.

I’ve gone back and forth with our law firm on whether to file lawsuits against the company and perfect a lien on the property (end customer) for the work we did. I’m holding tight right now in hopes that we get paid in the next week. If I pursue the lawsuit route,  it’ll put them out of business. Part of me wants to do that because what the owner of that company is doing is criminal.

[Mark Davis 379]

2 hours ago, Hawkeye21 said:

If you are a business owner or work in a management position, have you been dealing with a lot of fraud lately?  The past few months we have been dealing a lot with it.  The scammers are pretending to buy a large item, like farm equipment.  They mail a check that looks to be real from another business, using their actually banking information.  They hope you deposit it right away and then they cancel the purchase shortly after and ask the have the funds wired back to them.  They try to do this before your bank notifies you that the check is bad.  Not only have we received these checks but they have even issued checks with our name and recently closed account.

I used to deal with a lot of it taking online credit card orders.  I now just wholesale to other companies who take that risk.  I have been told by others that the bank scams are getting more sophisticated.  It seems like there are so many more data breaches today where your data is prone to being compromised.

[Alias Detective 1,392]

The ole Nigerian Price scam.

[Hawkeye21 2,390]

The check I got today looks legit. It’s for $33,500. I got a hold of the company whose name was on the check and they said it was fraudulent. It’s crazy how much of this happens.

On top of that, I have an actual local customer that got a bunch of product from us and is refusing to pay. It’s over $300k and he’s got it protected in a way that I can’t collect the money or the product. 

[Mark Davis 379]

3 minutes ago, Hawkeye21 said:

The check I got today looks legit. It’s for $33,500. I got a hold of the company whose name was on the check and they said it was fraudulent. It’s crazy how much of this happens.

On top of that, I have an actual local customer that got a bunch of product from us and is refusing to pay. It’s over $300k and he’s got it protected in a way that I can’t collect the money or the product. 

God man, that's awful.  I feel sick for you on that one.  I have a deal with a customer across the country that is on a large scale too.  We have legal proceedings going on but the guy stole from lots of people.  He's going to end up in jail but the scraps we are collecting are barely keeping the attorneys paid so I have my doubts this is going to be anything more than something large I have to learn a lesson from and consider a cost of business.  Hope yours turns out better.

[EternalShinyAndChrome 4,000]

Just picked up some nice equipment for $33,500 today.

[weepaws 3,160]

2 hours ago, Hawkeye21 said:

If you are a business owner or work in a management position, have you been dealing with a lot of fraud lately?  The past few months we have been dealing a lot with it.  The scammers are pretending to buy a large item, like farm equipment.  They mail a check that looks to be real from another business, using their actually banking information.  They hope you deposit it right away and then they cancel the purchase shortly after and ask the have the funds wired back to them.  They try to do this before your bank notifies you that the check is bad.  Not only have we received these checks but they have even issued checks with our name and recently closed account.

It’s been getting worse.  I know a buddy who is the lead manager at a Home Depot here in Reno, he’s been with the company for 16 years, says he’s never seen so much thief, and attempted thief.   And they are not even hiding their intentions.  

[Hawkeye21 2,390]

3 hours ago, Mark Davis said:

God man, that's awful.  I feel sick for you on that one.  I have a deal with a customer across the country that is on a large scale too.  We have legal proceedings going on but the guy stole from lots of people.  He's going to end up in jail but the scraps we are collecting are barely keeping the attorneys paid so I have my doubts this is going to be anything more than something large I have to learn a lesson from and consider a cost of business.  Hope yours turns out better.

We’ve already sued him and won but have no way of recovering the money. He doesn’t have any in his name. This isn’t his first time. 

[Gladiators 1,973]

6 hours ago, Hawkeye21 said:

If you are a business owner or work in a management position, have you been dealing with a lot of fraud lately?  The past few months we have been dealing a lot with it.  The scammers are pretending to buy a large item, like farm equipment.  They mail a check that looks to be real from another business, using their actually banking information.  They hope you deposit it right away and then they cancel the purchase shortly after and ask the have the funds wired back to them.  They try to do this before your bank notifies you that the check is bad.  Not only have we received these checks but they have even issued checks with our name and recently closed account.

This seems like an issue on the banks end. Are they doing anything about it? Also, how is the guy not in jail. Clearly you know who it is if you’ve sued him and won.