fake usps money orders

jimq112

My wife sells some things on other sites in addition to ebay, and recently sold some office supplies for around $100. These came UPS next day air, they would like the difference passed on to the person who picks up the office supplies.

It was easy for my wife (a clerk at USPS) to spot these as fakes, please be careful taking postal money orders. Take the trip to the post office and cash them before you ship or at the same time as you ship.

This is what the fakes look like

mmsportscards

So wheres the error?

cwazzy

Those are pretty convincing fakes actually. Are those holograms actually embedded or are they just stickers?

MeteoriteGuy

<< <i>So wheres the error? >>



No obvious errors that I can see. Although unless the USPS changed the MO the last year, looks different then the ones I am use to.

There has been a lot of MO scams the last couple years. Usually these are just very nice photocopies.

Clear Skies,
Mark

Ahmanfan

What is with the scammers always wanting the 'difference returned' or whatever... has any legit buyer ever overpaid for an exact amount they knew and then asked for the difference back?
John

ndleo

From the scan, it looks like it has all of the security features.

PoppaJ

Hi Jim,

I thank you and appreciate the info!

PoppaJ

zep33

<< <i>My wife sells some things on other sites in addition to ebay, and recently sold some office supplies for around $100. These came UPS next day air, they would like the difference passed on to the person who picks up the office supplies.

>>



Gonna set the person that show's up to pick up the supplies for mail fraud?

jimq112

USPS on the left side going from top to bottom are decals and not real convincing in person.

The white along the bottom edge shouldn't be there.

The ben franklin images on the left are supposed to be watermarks, instead they are images on the surface. They should not normally show up on a scan.

There's one other thing I really can't say without getting both of us in a crapload of trouble, but as soon as she saw them she knew they were bad. I'm sorry I can't blab that one, even though my job doesn't pay well it's all I have.


Bottom line is - it's best to cash it before shipping. All you need is ID and a USPS office. If they don't have enough dollars to cash it, they can tell you for sure if it's legitimate.

The postal inspector has these money orders already, and amazingly the perp used online shipping in his own name to send the checks here.

jimq112

<< <i>

<< <i>My wife sells some things on other sites in addition to ebay, and recently sold some office supplies for around $100. These came UPS next day air, they would like the difference passed on to the person who picks up the office supplies.

>>



Gonna set the person that show's up to pick up the supplies for mail fraud? >>



Yes. I went thru that selling an old Z28 and the guy actually showed up at the post office I worked at to pick the car up with a rollback. It was kind of funny seeing a tiltbed truck towing away a tiltbed truck.

ndleo

Thanks jimq112. So the watermark is the key feature to look for. It looks like the scammers can't forge that yet.

gameusedhoop

From what I've seen another tipoff would be the perferations at the top. They are much finer and closley spaced on a good MO. The perfs marks are far too agressive in those scans.

SidePocket

Sad to see people throw their lives away on scams like this.

Allen

The sad thing is it probably works at least 1/5 times. There was a woman in line in front of me at the PO a few weeks ago. She was shipping a hug box to Africa. She told the employee she wanted EMS shipping. I am thinking, that is going to cost a ton, he tells her it will be like $155 and she has one of the $17.55 stamps on it or something. She then puylls out a big booklet of the same stamps to add on. The guy who works that line at the PO is not the sharpest and he finally goes back to ask a supervisor. She tell them the buyer sent her the postage along with the money orders to pay for the items. I am thinking scam from the start of this, but the postal workers are very slow to piece it together I left before they told her to ship it or not, but I would hope they advised her to wait for payment to clear or something. I also wondered if the postage was fake also. I saw like 20 $17.55 postage stamps in her hand the buyer had sent.