All domain registrars require contact info be kept up to date, or the domain could be cancelled. I'm pretty sure it's part of ICANN regulations.
You're welcome, PA, for us giving you this heads up. Anytime...
The Newer Never-Ending PublishAmerica / America Star Books Thread
- Thread starter James D. Macdonald
- Start date
You're welcome, PA, for us giving you this heads up. Anytime...
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2005
- Messages
- 1,262
- Reaction score
- 234
- Age
- 66
- Location
- Virginia
- Website
- www.allenparker.net
If this is true, then someone should contact the police. At best, this is a state felony fraud charge. At worst, it is A federal interstate money laundering charge.
IANAL, but the internet information I could find suggests that writing a bad check for over $500 is a felony.
On the other hand, there have been thieves that have taken corporate information and printed checks on corporate accounts to glean money. This could be one of those situations and PA should contact the police to protect themselves from those guys.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,011
- Reaction score
- 697
- Location
- Sacramento area, CA
- Website
- www.umbachconsulting.com
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2010
- Messages
- 696
- Reaction score
- 95
Since people still fall for the "pigeon drop" and the, "Oh, dear! Your money/jewelry/item-of-value is cursed! Give it to me for cleansing!" scams, I shouldn't be surprised, but criminy! Even the FTC posted a warning about overpayment scams back in 2004 and they're not the quickest bunnies off the block (apologies) about producing scam warnings.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/12/checkoverpayment.shtm
I'm still not seeing the PA involvement. Other than putting PA in the title, the reporting party doesn't make any connection to them in the body of the report. Or am I missing something? *still confused*
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/12/checkoverpayment.shtm
I'm still not seeing the PA involvement. Other than putting PA in the title, the reporting party doesn't make any connection to them in the body of the report. Or am I missing something? *still confused*
Me too, Fluff. For all the off-the-wall crap PA pulls, I doubt something so easily caught by an auditor would be their first choice for laundering money. They've proven themselves too wily over the past 14 years to be so clumsy now. I guess I'm not convinced.
THEY is Publish America.
This is not the only charge against them for issuing bad checks. Willem has fallen on hard times, it seems.
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2010
- Messages
- 696
- Reaction score
- 95
So, someone in Danbury, CT thinks that PA (in whatever-address-they're-at-this-week, MD) mailed them a check and then asked them to send the overage to some lady in GA for an overpayment scam? They don't think that someone running a scam would be likely to either use a stolen check or a fake? Looks like an overpayment scammer used a legitimate company (unlike PA. *cough*) in Darien, CT earlier in the year. Who knew CT was such a hotbed of crime?
PA is scammy, scummy and downright evil (in my opinion), but they haven't shown themselves to be (quite) that stupid.
ETA: I'm with Allen. I hope the person went to the police and didn't just rely on a posting to the RipOff Report.
PA is scammy, scummy and downright evil (in my opinion), but they haven't shown themselves to be (quite) that stupid.
ETA: I'm with Allen. I hope the person went to the police and didn't just rely on a posting to the RipOff Report.
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 25,582
- Reaction score
- 3,787
- Location
- New Hampshire
- Website
- madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Remember when PA posted a picture of a PA check on-line, complete with bank routing information clearly shown?
Sounds like someone took that photo and used it for their own nefarious purposes.
Sounds like someone took that photo and used it for their own nefarious purposes.
Last edited:
Uh, yeah. While I don't agree with all of their tactics, it seems pretty clear they do take pains to stay out of trouble with the law. It's the kind of stunt that could put them out of business, which is why I don't see them doing this.
That makes a lot more sense than PA committing a blatant criminal fraud that would be likely to attract criminal charges.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,011
- Reaction score
- 697
- Location
- Sacramento area, CA
- Website
- www.umbachconsulting.com
Too close to blaming the victim (one of the victims, that is) as far as I am concerned, assuming that the speculation about a forged check is right -- and it does sound plausible.
--Ken
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 25,582
- Reaction score
- 3,787
- Location
- New Hampshire
- Website
- madhousemanor.wordpress.com
No possible way are they culpable. Someone forged a check in their name, without their knowledge. Google on "nanny scam" for lots of examples of this same basic fraud, without PublishAmerica's name attached.
Really, there's nothing here. It's an incredibly common scam.
They instigated it by posting that check online so they should be culpable. They enabled it to happen.
Without actually seeing that check, Dave, there's no way to know whether it had the same numbers on it. It's all to easy to fake a check these days.
Do places like Vista Print confirm bank account and routing numbers when you order checks? Seems to me anyone could print up checks for any company with bogus numbers and upload a company logo onto the check.
We're off topic, but what I don't get is what the bad check writer thought to gain, as the chest (hopefully) wouldn't be shipped until the check cleared, which it clearly wouldn't. And of course the woman in Georgia would never get the money since the seller didn't get the money either. The scammer would have thought the numbers were legit or this had no chance of working.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,011
- Reaction score
- 697
- Location
- Sacramento area, CA
- Website
- www.umbachconsulting.com
"She should not have dressed like that. She had it coming."
Not buying it.
--Ken
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 25,582
- Reaction score
- 3,787
- Location
- New Hampshire
- Website
- madhousemanor.wordpress.com
The point isn't getting the chest. The point is getting the victim to wire money.
Here's how it works:
You advertise something. A scammer says, "Hey, I want to buy that!"
"Cool," you say, "send the money."
They do, only instead of the $24.00 you were asking for, they send a check (or money order, or cashier's check, or other negotiable instrument) for $2,400.
"Wait a minute," you say, "That's way too much!"
"Oh, my foolish (assistant|accountant|attorney) made a mistake," the scammer says. "Deposit the (check|money order|cashier's check) and wire me the difference."
So you make the deposit, and your bank takes it, you wire the $2,376 (which doesn't necessarily go to where you think you're sending it--someone in Lagos can just as easily pick up the cash).
Two weeks later your bank calls you to tell you that the check bounced; you have to make restitution, plus pay the bad check fee.
Whether or not you sent the object, the address will turn out to be the second floor over a vacant lot. The scammer doesn't want the object, any more than the short-change artist who buys some trinket wants the object he's buying -- all the short-change artist is looking for is a plausible reason to talk with the cashier.
All that's required to run this scam is an e-mail account and a color printer.
A lot of the bogus checks are physically mailed by people who answered the "Make money stuffing envelopes at home!" ads that you see around. They wind up getting stiffed, too, because when the end of the month rolls around their employer (who was only an e-mail address and a package from Lagos containing checks) vanishes rather than paying them.
---------------
The original check in this case could just as easily have been one of the thousands of checks for $0.00 that PA used to send, or could have been genned up with PA's logo off their website and a copy of Photoshop.
See also: http://www.fakechecks.org/prevention-faqs.html
Last edited:
Ah, okay. The part I missed was that the seller wires the money before he knows if the check cleared. I figured most people, especially those who're familiar with selling antiques online, would know better. I'm sure many people wouldn't, though. This fellow said he was only held to the $12 fee, so let's hope he was.
Most people don't realize that it takes up to 30 days for a check to clear and can be pulled at any point up until then. Even if your bank clears the check, it can be pulled after the fact and you are stuck. The scammers play on the fact that most people do not understand how long it can actually take for the money to arrive in your account.
Well if you cash a check and there is no money in the account , it is fraud too.
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2010
- Messages
- 696
- Reaction score
- 95
Postings on the PAMB seem to have slowed to a crawl. The only part of the forum still getting even a small work-out is the Author's (sic) Lounge. In other sections, one poor soul stated he/she had sold 146 books since their book was published in 2009. Another bought a copy of Writer's Digest and, to their "surprise and delight", discovered that it was a magazine about writing. Now, if they do a search on Google and find us, that would be a good thing.
Every time I visit there, as rare as that might me, I come away with the same feeling: not to be patronizing, but I want to simultaneously shake them and hug them, much as a parent with a child that almost got hit by a car. Wanting to give them a hug wins out, though.
Every time I visit there, as rare as that might me, I come away with the same feeling: not to be patronizing, but I want to simultaneously shake them and hug them, much as a parent with a child that almost got hit by a car. Wanting to give them a hug wins out, though.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,011
- Reaction score
- 697
- Location
- Sacramento area, CA
- Website
- www.umbachconsulting.com