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If someone you don’t know sends you a check and asks for money back, that’s a scam. But what if you’re a small business owner and someone “overpays” you and asks you to refund the balance? That’s still a scam — a fake check scam, to be exact.

Want to learn more about how this scam works — especially before you cash a check and send somebody money back? Check out this video: fake check scams 

For more on fake checks, read these tips on how to spot, avoid, and report fake check scams.

Suspect a fake check scam? Report it to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint.

And to keep up to date on what the FTC is doing, sign up to get Consumer Alerts.

 

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3 Comments

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
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