I have been posting ads on the internet for a new housemate to replace my housemate who is moving out in April. In some sense we were pretty desperate to find some one for the room. I had a flood of emails after I did the most recent posting and quite a lot of them were talking about how they were from another country and needed a place to stay... Some were models from W.A., evangelists doing missionary work... students... all sorts... and quite a number of them said that once agreed they would get their agent to send a cheque to me for 3000 odd pounds and I am to transfer the first month's rent to the my landlord and the rest back to them... they would say its for a favour and they needed me to do that so they can pay for their air tickets and stuff...
I have never heard of such situations before... and did find it a bit odd (yes... I was naive and gullible, this sentence is to save my ego). haha so in my desperate attempt to find a replacement, I picked the most 'normal' sounding person (she did say I was her only friend after a few emails). She said the cheque would arrive in a few days time. I felt a bit edgey about the entire matter, so asked her to get her agent to ring me...
I waited for a few days... no cheque, no phone calls... and got paranoid that she was a computer generated message or people playing a joke on me. After consultation from a few friends, I decided to find someone else for the house. I did tell her via email to ring me before Sunday or I will rent the room out. She did not ring me by sunday. I gave the room to my current new housemate :p
On Tuesday... I received a cheque!!! and a phone call from her to check my email (I was feeling guilty about letting the room out so did not ask her anything over the phone... she did not seem too keen to talk to me either) I checked my email and she left a message saying she still needs me to cash the cheque... and she will tell me where to transfer the account to later. And she made it sound like she really needed me to help her to free up this money.
At first I was thinking... that sounds a little dodgey... and as an international student I thought it might have something to do with coming from another country and having dificulties with bank accounts being activated and what not... so was quite tempted to help... I did go and read up on fake cheques but was not sure whether to do it or not.
haha so I did another first in my 4 years in Sheffield :p I went to the Students' Advice Centre at the Union (this year has been an exciting one for me I must day). I had a chat with the lady and we came to the conclusion that it might not be in my best interest to help her. She looked at the cheque and commented that that bank might have been robbed last month or something... haha and I was like 'ooh... this is getting exciting'. She checked with the money advisor and apparently they had a few cases of fake cheques being sent to people and stuff... And she told me something I did not know... that when you've cashed the cheque, it might clear and you might supposedly be able to use the money within 5 days, but the entire transaction might take 4-5 weeks. By the time the bank realizes that the cheque has bounced, you would have transferred your money else where... haha I thought that was a pretty good way of cheating people actually...
I went home, took a picture of the cheque (haha for keepsake... first time nearly getting conned), then tore it up.
anyway... I'm glad the whole business is over. I was polite and sent her an email saying I'm definitely not going to cash the cheque ;>. But if it was really a scam... its quite sad too... she sounded quite desperate on the phone... ;(
No comments:
Post a Comment