As the holidays approach, maybe you're looking for a little extra money. That could mean selling something online.
Ben wanted to sell his couch online and thought he had had a buyer.
"He sent me a check for $1,690," Ben says.
The buyer said $1,390 would be the movers' fee and Ben would keep $300 for the couch.
He was told to deposit the check and send the movers their fee through the payment app, Zelle.
He did that — he sent the money and later found the check was fake.
Ben had been scammed out of $1,390.
"Always pause when someone asks you to send or receive something," says Christian Romero, who sees a lot of scams as the Phoenix Community Manager for Chase Bank.
He's warning consumers about one of the biggest scams involving fake checks.
"Go into your local bank and get some guidance — ask...'is this a real check?'" he says.
While a check deposit may show in your account, Romero says it could take days to know if the money is really there.
So don't count on that money to spend.
If a scammer asks you to send money through a cash app, that money comes out of your account immediately.
And if you send money to a scammer, in most cases, you won't get it back.
Romero says to double- and triple-check before transferring money with apps.
He says Chase apps remind customers of that.
"It says — warning, before you send, stop and understand that you should verify the person you're sending it to," Romero says.
If you are a victim, contact your bank to see if you can stop the transfer or retrieve your money.
Chase says they take these on a case-by-case basis.
You may not fall for a scam, but your parents or grandparents may fall for them.
They are targets, and once you've sent money to a scammer, you're on a list.
"You're going to receive a lot more emails, a lot more texts because they know they got you once," Romero says.
Read more from Chase regarding warnings about scams here.
Learn more about fake check scams from the Federal Trade Commission.
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