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Melissa Dunphy of Dartmouth stands in front of her 1991 Nissan Access holding a bogus money order. A buyer for her car sent her the money order which later bounced.(Jeff Harper)
Woman victim of auto scamBank originally approved fake money orderBy HOLLY FRAUGHTON
Melissa Dunphy has $9 to last her and her three children until January.
Ms. Dunphy was the victim of a con commonly known as an overpayment scam. In late October, she placed an ad in the Bargain Hunter asking for $250 for her 1991 Nissan. Someone later asked her for photographs and a detailed description of the car.
The man, who called himself Willy Turley, wanted to buy the car but said he lives in Belgium and she would have to ship it to him. Mr. Turley said he would have an associate from the United States send her a money order for $1,500, and Ms. Dunphy should deduct the cost of the car from the total and send the rest along to a Nigerian shipping company.
Ms. Dunphy said she was skeptical at first but sent the information along to humour Mr. Turley. So when a Bank of Montreal money order came in the mail, she was surprised. The money order looked legitimate and she decided to complete the transaction.
Ms. Dunphy took the money order to her branch of the Royal Bank on Nov. 9, and she said the teller had it approved by her supervisor. She then transferred the balance of $1,250 to what was supposed to be a shipping company in Nigeria.
But on Nov. 18, when Ms. Dunphy checked her account balance before heading out to start her Christmas shopping, she saw that she had only $9. It turned out that the money order was counterfeit, and when her bank found out, it took the money out of her bank account to cover the transaction.
“The woman at the bank told me it is a known Nigerian fraud ring, but I had no idea.”
Ms. Dunphy feels her bank is partly responsible because it verified the money order. The bank told her the problem is between her and “Mr. Turley.” Ms. Dunphy said the man gave her false contact information and won’t return her e-mails.
Beja Rodeck, senior public relations spokeswoman for the Royal Bank, said she could not comment on Ms. Dunphy’s situation because of the bank’s privacy policy. She said the bank examines fraud case by case but advises customers to know from whom they are accepting payments because the customer is responsible for the validity of the item deposited.
Ms. Dunphy was advised to contact an organization called Phone Busters, a national anti-fraud call centre jointly operated by Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Det. Const. Dana Drover of Halifax Regional Police said these scam artists “troll” countless electronic marketplaces looking for people to take advantage of, and he warned that people need to be aware of deals that seem too good to be true.
“They try to build that trust relationship with you . . . but why would a complete stranger send you two, three, four, 10 times the amount you want for an item and then expect you to send them back the difference? That’s a big red flag. It’s just common sense.”
Det. Const. Drover said that just because the bank initially clears a foreign cheque or money order doesn’t mean the document is real. It takes time for banks to get back to the issuing source and see if the funds actually exist, he said.
Ms. Dunphy plans to file a police report soon, but Det. Const. Drover said there isn’t much the authorities can do after the fact.
She has contacted the Community Services Department to see if it can help out with her rent and bills for December, but a social worker told her the department doesn’t replace lost or stolen funds. And she is ineligible for assistance because she is employed — she is on maternity leave from her job at Convergys.
“The money that is gone now was my rent money, my bill money and my Christmas money.”
(Contact the Author: hfraughton@herald.ca)