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Comment by duskwuff | Hacker News Reader

> I hear about various "work from home" jobs actually being scams, but what's going on there?

There's a lot of variants, but a couple of the most common ones are:

1) "Welcome to ScamCo! Here's a check for $X to help you pay for these work supplies, send us back the extra after you're done." (The check bounces; the repayment of the remainder doesn't.)

2) "Welcome to ScamCo! You'll be my personal assistant, please buy me some gift cards / cryptocurrency / whatever." (The payment to cover the cost of the cards bounces; the gift cards / cryptocurrency / whatever are unrecoverable.)

3) "Welcome to ScamCo! You'll help me move money between my bank accounts." (The bank accounts are stolen; the mark is working as a money mule.)

4) "Welcome to ScamCo! You'll help us reship packages." (The packages are stolen goods.)

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Looks like 50% of those scams could be eliminated simply by the general public not accepting cheques.

I don't think I've seen one here for at least a decade and a half, same for signatures with credit cards.

Similar scams are done in Europe, where checks are almost-extinct. Sorry, scammers will always find a way

How though? A direct bank transfer in Europe is nearly completely impossible to reverse, once you have money in your account it's staying there.

The "money agent" acts as a cut-out and delay tactic.

Usually it's combined with a parcel re-shipping scam.

It works like this: "Sell" high-priced items on eBay, use the local bank account of the mule to collect the money. The victims will trust this process because a local bank account is involved. The mule now transfers that money through irrevocable money orders into a non-extraditory country.

The victims will go after the mule, but the police will take some time, so you get 2-4 months out of a mile until he is arrested.

At the same time, you order high-priced items using stolen credit cards and have them delivered to the mule. The mule repackages them and sends them to the scammers. The shops will go after the mule.

Ah. That makes sense - thanks for explaining.

Until bank-to-bank 0% fee services like Zelle become more popular, checks are still the best way to pay someone a significant amount without a chunk getting taken out as debit/credit fees.

Thankfully people these days know that checks that aren't cashier's checks are nearly worthless. I wish more people verified the check over the phone before accepting it but it's a start.

Absolutely - or if the check clearing process made it more obvious to customers that a check hasn't cleared yet, possibly even by not making funds available for checks drawn on dubious banks until the check has fully cleared.

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