The Checks In The Mail

When we were selling the puppies, we put an ad in the Courier and we got calls from Silver City, NM, FT, Huachuca, Duncan, Virden,....all over the place. One evening the phone rang and an operator said it was a Relay Call. She said she would tell me what the person at the other end of the line wanted to say, and she would type in my response for him. He wanted information about the puppies, and the operator gave me his E-Mail address to contact him with that information. I sent an E-Mail giving price, male puppy, etc. The E-Mail I got back said he was hearing impaired, the reason for the relay call, and said he wanted the puppy for his son's birthday. He was sending a money order or Cashier's Check and I was to cash it immediately, withhold the price of the puppy, and send the rest to a company for shipment fees. I got to thinking.......I called 411 to find out where the call had come from & it was a Texas number. I sent an E-Mail asking where the man lived. He sent back, saying he lived in Ohio. I sent another E-Mail and said that was too far to ship my puppy, and I was sure he could find one closer to his home. A few days later came another E-Mail that said he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor of the brain.
I wrote again and told him the puppies were all gone, and there would be no transaction, the deal was off. Well, a few days later, the UPS driver pulled in, came to the door, and handed me a large envelope, addressed to me. I told the driver I was wary of opening it. But Jerry and him said I might as well. I opened it up, and there was a check for $2,000.00 in a smaller envelope. The check was issued from a bank in the state of Washington from a business there. Jerry called the bank, reading off the numbers at the bottom of the check, and no such account or business existed in that town. Jerry called the police in that area and they said they knew things like that were going on. Then he called the Pima Police, who came and took a report and a copy of the check. Then the next day, in the mail, came a check for $2,550.00 originating from Idaho, same thing, no good. We got a couple more relay calls, but refused to accept them. A few days later, another check in the mail from a bank in Chicago, postmarked New York for $2,550.00

These checks all looked very official and real. If we had tried, our bank would have cashed them, and if we had sent some money on to someone else, they would have been richer. The checks would have eventually come back to our bank as no good, and the money would have been withdrawn from our account. So, I still have the puppy, 3 checks totalling $7,000.00 to put in a scrapbook, and am a little more knowledgeable about scams and how they work. This involved several states, phone calls, e-mails, the UPS, and the US mail. So, if something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is......not true, no good. We had to explain to a few of our friends why 2 police cars were in front of our house, while we were filing the report, but thats better than having warrants issued for passing bad checks. SO BEWARE! PS That isn't why I still have the puppy. I could have sold him many times. I just decided to keep him.