I was a victim of the QCHEX scam!
My story goes like this. A few months ago, I decided to sell a rare Dumbledore action figure for $150 on craigslist. I received an email from a person who was obviously out of the country. He said that the price sounded good and that he would like to buy it and would be sending me a money order. He also said that he would be sending an extra $300, which I assumed was for the shipping. But then he said that the total he would be sending would be $2800. I figured that since he was out of the country, he made a mistake on the conversion. I wrote him back stating that it was only $150 for the doll. After that, money was no longer mentioned in anymore emails.
For the past 2 months, he kept emailing me, stating that I should've gotten the check. I told him every single time that I had not. A couple weeks ago, I even told him to stop emailing me as I thought I would never see the check, and then never thought about this guy or his emails again.
On Thursday, July 27, 2005 I received a check in the mail for $3000 from a company called Infinity Micro Computers Inc. The check looked totally legit, with the watermark, the whole banking info, my name and address as the payor, and everything. So of course, I was extremely excited, thinking I was getting $3000! I decided to go to the bank it was drawn upon, Wells Fargo, to cash it, that way if there was some sort of mistake, they would let me know.
I gave the tellers (there were 2 as one was a trainee) the check, my 2 forms of ID and asked to cash it. She stated that she needed to verify the check since it was a large amount. I said no problem and to take their time. She goes to the back of the bank, and a couple minutes later, the training teller returns and tells me it'll be just one more moment. I said that it was no problem at all and we began to chit-chat, talking about the weather and what not.
Another couple minutes go by, and a police officer walks in the door. I didn't really think anything of it since it was a bank. But then he walks over to me and proceeds to ask me for ID. I explained that the teller had them. A plain clothes detective walks up and asks me to have a seat while the cop and the teller talk.
Of coursee by now I'm thinking that something was wrong. That the cop was going to talk to me, ask me where I got the check, and let me go. Well, that wasn't entirely the case. Another cop walks up to me, tells me put my hands behind my back, and that I was being arrested for trying to cash a stolen check. I didn't understand what was going on. I couldn't comprehend how they thought I stole the check when it had my name and address printed on it.
I was taken to the police dept, and interrogated. They kept asking me about the check, where I got it from, who sent it, and why did I think I could just go cash it. At this point, I still hadn't put 2 and 2 together, realizing that this was all over that Dumbledore doll, and the man overseas. So I told the cops the truth, that I had thought I won it from somewhere considering that I always sign up for drawings, contests, and free stuff on the internet. The cops absolutely would not believe me, even though while I was there, my landlady arrived at the police dept to give them the envelope and the stub that came with it.
I was then taken to Las Colinas women's jail and being charged with 2 counts of making a fictitional check, and 1 count of burglary. Yep, 3 felonies. I have never been arrested before in my entire life, and my bail was automatically set at $30,000. Fortunately my mom was able to come up with $1400, and I'm on a $300/month payment plan.
Still not knowing where the check had really come from, I got home and noticed that I had another email from the buyer of Dumbledore asking me if I had received the check yet. I replied no, since I still hadn't put 2 and 2 together. It was then that I looked at the original email from him, and finally realized exactly what had happened.
I'm so scared about having to go to jail, that I'm not eating or sleeping and all I can do lately is cry. I've never been in trouble with the law for more than a speeding ticket. I'm still breastfeeding my daughter who is about to be 1 year old. Everyone is telling me to get a good attorney, but I have no money what so ever, so as of right now, I'm going to have to put my faith in a public defender.
However, I have a paypal account, and am placing my hope in humanity that people will hear my story and may want to help me out. I'm a stay at home mother with 2 kids. My son will be 10 and then my daughter who will be 1. My husband is a waiter, and he has to support us all. If anyone could help me by donating even a dollar so I can get an attorney, I would appreciate it. But if you can't, I would appreciate it more if you could pass my story on to someone else, so maybe this doesn't happen to them. Thank you very much.
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