This person friended me from an online game I played asking if I wanted to be paid to be a penpal. I’m familiar with a lot of phishing scams and other sorts of scams but I’ve never seen a scam like this one. What exactly is this person trying to get from me, are they hoping to infect my device with something sinister or are they trying to phish information from me without me knowing it? They seem to put a lotta emphasis on me VIEWING this photo they’re gonna send me and it makes me think that whatever they’re gonna send me must be infected with some sort of trojan. Can someone explain to me what’s going on here?

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    200·
    2 days ago

    It’s called remote deposit cheque fraud. It’s a fake cheque. If you cash it, it will eventually get flagged as a a fake, and the bank will take the money back, even if you’ve already spent it or sent it to the scammer. And if you never send money to the scammer, they get nothing, but it also costs them nothing to make the attempt, because you’re the one depositing the cheque and wearing the risk.

    • TachyonTele_Esq@piefed.socialEnglish
      33·
      2 days ago

      What happened to checks needing to be cleared first by banks? Do they just accept them now and deal with it later?

      I haven’t used a check in… 30 years I think.

      • doc@fedia.io
        26·
        2 days ago

        Most banks will, as a courtesy, deposit a certain amount immediately while the remainder waits to be cleared. My bank will pre-deposit $500 of any check and then the rest several days later. Or at least they used to. It’s been like 10 years since I had to depsoit a check.

      • bigkahuna1986@lemmy.ml
        11·
        2 days ago

        Depending on the amount and the history of the customer cashing it you may get the funds right away. Probably not for a 1000$ but less then 200 or so. Eventually it will clear and you’ll get boned if it was bad.

        • Thurstylark@lemmy.todayEnglish
          10·
          2 days ago

          The way I understand it, scammers use the most incapable, podunk banks possible so it takes the most amount of time to fully clear a check, usually hoping that the mark will cash it in and send the scammer a portion of the bad check, so the mark is left with the bag. From the mark’s bank’s pov, the mark has spent more money than they were ever entitled to.

          • froh42@lemmy.world
            12·
            2 days ago

            I find it so weird that parts of the world never moved away from the cheque system. I used my last one mid-90s or so.

            SEPA bank transfers are cheap and real time.

            On top that cheque system is so ripe for fraud.

            • Lumidaub@feddit.org
              2·
              2 days ago

              And then those parts of the world scoff at parts where people don’t use a credit card for every little thing.