Alberta landlords are being warned that criminals are attempting to swindle them through the same "overpayment" scam that has hit retailers across the province in recent years.
Some members of the Calgary Apartment Association (CAA) report they have been approached to enter into a scam that could be extremely costly to landlords, says Gerry Baxter, CAA executive director and a former police superintendent.
One landlady lost several thousand dollars when she acted on her Internet correspondent's instructions to forward funds from a bank draft to a shipping agent in Eastern Canada.
The bank draft later proved bogus. It apparently had been stolen; then altered digitally by the criminals. "It was an expensive lesson," says Baxter.
The landlady's experience bears striking similarities to frauds against retailers that came to my attention in 2003-04 when I managed the complaints department at the Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta.
The hustlers, operating by telephone or on the Internet from continents such as Africa, place orders for quantities of merchandise as large as the retailer can be persuaded to send. These criminals would send phoney bank drafts; then add the "overpayment" twist.
Here's how the scam works: The business receives a counterfeit draft in excess of what is owed and then ships the merchandise. The criminals persuade the merchant to deposit the instrument and wire the excess funds back to them or an "agent."
The deposited cashier's cheque is subsequently returned as counterfeit and charged back to the seller's account.
One Surrey, B.C., computer outlet nearly went bankrupt when it fell for this con.
PhoneBusters, a national anti-fraud call centre operated by the Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP, says anyone selling goods should be suspicious of any cheque, especially if it is for more than the agreed selling price.
PhoneBusters advises merchants to consider an alternative method of payment, such as an online payment service. It also suggests talking to your bank about the safest way to receive funds from overseas.
Gerry Baxter's policeman's knack for observation did not fail him when he reviewed some of the come-ons brought to his attention by his landlord members. "We have numerous e-mails allegedly written by people with different names," he notes, adding that they typically were responding to ads on rental websites.
"But much of the text is identical and many of the same spelling errors appear in each of the different e-mails. Many of them ask the landlord to provide the same type of information, including complete mailing address, phone number, contact person (and) pictures of the rental unit."
Baxter says these crooks typically claim to be looking at coming to Alberta from their faraway land to get away from it all, "it all" typically being a tragic tale such as the death of a spouse in an auto accident.
"All claim to be professionals - the grammar is anything but - and all will send a cheque or bank draft in an amount larger than the first month's rent and security deposit, with a request that the landlord send the balance on to the scammer's shipping agent," he says.
This is necessary, the swindlers claim, to help cover the cost of moving their belongings to Canada.
Agencies such as PhoneBusters, the United States Federal Trade Commission and the BBB offer merchants and consumers (who can similarly become victimized through such venues as online auctions) the following advice:
* Know who you are dealing with, and independently confirm your buyer's name, street address and telephone number.
* Never, ever accept a cheque or bank draft for more than your selling price.
* Never agree to wire funds back to a buyer. You have limited recourse if a problem arises with a wire transfer.
* Ignore pressure to "act now.”
If the buyer's offer is good now, it should be good when the cheque clears.
* If you accept payment by cheque, ask for a cheque drawn on a bank with a branch in your municipality. Visit that bank branch to determine whether the cheque is legitimate.
"It doesn't matter what is being sold - scammers have used the overpayment scam for cars, trucks, all-terrain vehicles, horses, tractors (and) wedding dresses," says ScamBusters.org.
"It doesn't matter why you are supposed to send them back money - scammers give hundreds of different excuses that seem plausible at first."
Baxter says most of these hoaxes appear to originate from overseas and the U.S. Consequently, complaints from victims or near-victims do not inspire a lot of enthusiasm among police, he notes.
That probably is because of the ephemeral quality of the online con artist and the great deal of difficulty and potential expense involved in chasing down these transcontinental will-o'-the-wisps and prosecuting them.
Baxter cautions against responding in any way, even if your motive is simply to engage in idle sport with these sociopathic dregs of humanity. If you do, you'll likely be hit with numerous importunate overnight phone calls.
Where Alberta landlords are concerned, Baxter is left with one nagging question: Why on earth would any such businessperson risk dealing with a prospective tenant claiming to be from Ireland or England?
"Our market is so hot that I would encourage face-to-face dealings only."
(Brock Ketcham is an Edmonton-based writer who specializes in consumer and public policy issues. He can be reached at brock@businessedge.ca)
