You've got Checks! $3995.25 Check from Modern USA Insurance Co

You got Checks! $3995.25 Check from Modern USA Insurance Co

A week ago, I was surprised to opened a mail with an enclosed check amounting to $3995.25. The check is from Modern USA Insurance Co, with address 7785 66th Street North Pinellas Park, FL 33781 and issued from Sun Trust Bank with the address 300 1st Ave South St., Petersburg , FL 33701. No clue.

With the check is another sheet with all the information regarding the check. The front page include section A - Customer Service Evaluation Tool, and section B - Transfer the sum of $3,200.00 to only one of the mystery shoppers below: Clarnita Leonard. The back page is a breakdown of how the enclosed check is to be disbursed.

Looking at the check, the amount shows $3,995.25 and wonder why they send me extra and have to send a check to someone else. Why not just send two separate checks to both of us? So, I googled Modern USA and wants to know if a company exists and found none. Hmmm...something fishy here.

Out of curiosity, I called a friend and told her about it. She has a different version. She advertised in craiglists offering piano lessons for $25.00 a month , one hour per session. That sounds good. Two days later, she got an email of someone interested to sign up his little boy for piano lessons. She emailed back and they exchange phone number and talk to each other. My friend however suggested that she wanted to meet the boy before starting the piano lessons so she can prepare better. No answer. The next day, she received a parcel from UPS from a certain "Greg" with an out of state address mailed to her. Out of curiosity, she opened it and found a check of $900.00 with instruction that she deduct the amount of 3 months piano lessons and the remaining balance to send to someone else. Boy, she was confused! Why would anyone send a check worth more than the piano lesson fees. She went to the bank and inquire about it. They can't help her because the bank can't really tell if the check has money until it's cleared. She end up reporting it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Another friend has another story to tell. She received an email offering a part time job with an easy work and good pay. All she needs to do is receive the checks coming and deposit them on her account. She gets 10% of the amount. According to the "company", they need a liaison here in the U.S. to receive their foreign checks because the "company" is based in China. OK. That sounds an easy part time job. 2 days later, she received a mail with $97,000.00 check in it pay to the order of her name of course. Along with it is to call a person to inform the checks arrived and a phone number to call. It happens that she is a chinese, so she thought it will be easy to talk to a chinese person like her. Well, the person who answered the phone has a chinese name but can't even speak a chinese word. Ha! That sounds funny...The "person" on the other line instructed her to deposit the money in her account and to wait for instructions. Few days later, she received an email instructing her to send a check to a certain company in Canada for some freight charges the "company" needs to pay. Now my friend is getting suspicious. She emailed back and ask for receipts, just for security measures. It took a long time for them to email back with a receipt with a U.S. address with the items bamboo living room set for $97,000.00. You think a bamboo dining sent would cost that much?

Well, I have come back to my senses and realized this check is not worth anything but a piece of paper from some people who want to make money the easy way. Actually, there is a name who to call and a phone number. Julie Philips or David Anderson at 1-514-638-8128 and you can also fax to 1-404-745-0740.

I am sure there are a lot of stories like this especially with the economy's turndown. Your gut will tell you the truth and always ask when it involves money in your account.