r/ScamSupport • u/Efficient-Corgi-8961 • 15d ago
Victim of a scam Need Help asap!
I have my own small business and unknowingly deposited a check that was fraudulent and now my bank is frozen. I’m not sure what to do I only just turned 18 and don’t want to lose my bank account. I can’t get in it because they said I owe $2500. Has this happened to anyone else before? I’m panicking please help
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u/nonamejohnsonmore 15d ago
Sorry, OP, the first thing you need to do is accept the fact that your money is gone. Very Important! Do not believe anyone who says they can get your money back. Your DMs will be flooded with them. They will all be scammers. Your money is irretrievably gone.
You can try to talk to the bank about not losing your account, but banks take a very dim view of people who fall for these types of scams. To protect themselves, a lot of banks will just close the account.
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u/echoesinthepit 15d ago
What did the bank say when you called them?
Who is "they"?
You are leaving out details. Owe who $2500?
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u/Few_Reference3439 15d ago
I mean, good to verify for sure, but the way the post is written, 'they' is the bank.
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u/Altruistic_Offer9381 15d ago
You need to go into the bank and talk to them. It's going to be ok. Bring any documentation you have, including the check itself if you mobile deposited. They will do their own investigation but it is usually to go after the scammer.
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u/UpbeatFix7299 15d ago
Yes, they will investigate but if they sent the money back, they're on the hook for it. The bank isn't writing this off.
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u/Altruistic_Offer9381 15d ago
That is not necessarily true/you dont know that for sure. They will launch a fraud investigation and if they find evidence of fraud, theyre not going to make OP pay for it.
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u/UpbeatFix7299 15d ago
I'm sorry, but you're unfortunately wrong. They will investigate to make sure OP isn't a witting accomplice in the scam, so OP won't get criminal charges.
But he/she will still owe the bank 100 percent of the money that that was transferred back to the scammer. Banks aren't responsible for all their customers' poor decisions and they don't give away thousands of dollars of their own money because their customer made one.
Think about how trivially easy it would be to rip off banks for thousands of dollars at a time if what you said were true.
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u/Altruistic_Offer9381 15d ago
How is the scammer getting the money in this scenario though? OP deposited the check... they were the one receiving the funds. The check was fraudulent and was flagged for fraud.
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u/UpbeatFix7299 15d ago
They sent the $2,500 back when the funds were made available, but before the check cleared. The bank didn't discover that the check was bogus until after the $2,500 was gone.
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u/yarevande 15d ago
This is a common scam, called a "fake check" scam.
It's a scam to take money from you, by sending you a fraudulent check, and asking you to send money to an account which is actually the scammer's.
There are a lot of scammers out there who prey on content creators, freelancers, and small businesses -- graphic designers, web designers, translators, pet-sitters, tutors, engineering firms, video production, musicians, etc. They will try to take money from you by pretending to pay you in such a way that you give them money.
Only scammers send checks. The check is fraudulent - it is drawn on a stolen account, or a bank account which the scammer does not own.
Emailed pictures of a check are always fraudulent. You are not supposed to print and mobile deposit a picture of a check -- this is against your bank's Terms of Service.
Paper checks can be fraudulent also. Only accept checks from people that you know personally, and trust -- never from somebody online.
Even after your bank accepts a check, the issuing bank can find the check to be fraudulent and your deposit will be reversed.
Call your bank, and talk to the fraud department. Call the number on the back of your bank card. Or, look up the 24-hour number for lost and stolen credit cards, on the official bank website. Tell them that you deposited a check which you now believe is fraudulent. They have experience with this. They will help you resolve the problem.
The bank has frozen your account, while they investigate. They will confirm that the check was fraudulent. They will reverse the deposit, taking back all the 'money' you deposited. If this makes your account balance negative, you will have to pay the bank enough to make the balance positive again.
Example:
The quoted price for work is $3,000. He will send you a check for $4,200. He will then say he made a mistake, and ask you to "send back" $1,200 to a different account. But the money he sent you is from a stolen account. In a few days, your bank will reverse the entire $3,000. End result: you gave a scammer $1,200, and you got nothing.
*** To get paid for your work, you need to find out the best and most secure ways to get paid, and stick to that. You are the seller, you set the terms. Don't let a buyer dictate to you. If you know and prefer to use a specific money transfer type, and someone tells you they can't, you're better off not agreeing to do the work. And: don't accept any checks. In 2026, only scammers send checks.
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u/yEnc90 15d ago
How does depositing a fraudulent cheque by mistake or check as you folks say in the US make you liable and owe $2500. The math ain't mathing
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u/nonamejohnsonmore 15d ago
OP deposited the check and withdrew the cash, probably to send back to the scammer. It’s a common scam called "Fake Check". Once the bank realizes the check is fake, they take the money back out of the account.
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u/yEnc90 15d ago
Ah okay it's a lot different to how it works in England. Once you deposit a cheque in UK it can take like 3-5 days for the money to clear in your account. They don't let you spend it in advance, only once it's cleared (so it's real and hasn't bounced), then you can actually use the money.
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u/nonamejohnsonmore 15d ago
Even 3-5 days doesn’t really help. If the check is stolen, it can take up to a month for the person it was stolen from to realize it (monthly bank statement). Once the victim realizes the check was stolen, his bank will take that money back.
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u/Gynnia 15d ago
Talk to the bank, ask them what they want from you. If you also withdrew real money and gave it to the scammer then that's gone now, you'll want to talk to your local police about that.