I’m not going to do anything. I’m done with this for now.
If the money is still there after 90 days, I’ll reconsider, as pretty much most credit card companies only give you 60 days to report an unauthorized charge before you own it entirely.
I’m still debating if at that point the money would be mine, as it couldn’t be reported as stolen anymore. And I have absolutely no way of returning it to the victim, who I have absolutely no way of identifying.
Why aren’t you letting yourself get scammed?? I thought you were a good person.
I’d leave it for a year at least. It isn’t your money, and eventually someone will come for it.
Explain you live in the big city and a night out can run to several grand. If he could be just a little more generous, that would be better all round.
Or the classic, ask him to mail you (Provided you have a non-home address you can use) a $20 bill as a sign of good faith. Then keep the bill and ignore him just like you were going to do.
I wouldn’t want to give a scammer my mailing address though.
Just tell him you’re a Nigerian Prince…
I think I used too strong a set of parentheses!
I am totally ok with people sending me $20.
Oh no, I’m not falling for that one again.
I’m still debating if at that point the money would be mine, as it couldn’t be reported as stolen anymore. And I have absolutely no way of returning it to the victim, who I have absolutely no way of identifying.
The money was provided Saturday or late Friday, right? So only 1 bank/working day has actually passed as of late Monday night. If he calls it in to recall the money, it’ll take 3-5 bank days before it clears, and maybe up to 10. Don’t touch it, or you will need to refund whatever is missing.
Sounds like a fair trade all things being said.
That was my very first thought when I first saw the title of this thread.
Given the (relatively) low dollar amount, no one/bank is coming after this once the time period for chargebacks and disputes passes (90 days at most).
So that is when I would consider it “your money”. It is almost assuredly stolen funds from someone else, but if they saw it and flagged it with their bank/credit card company then it’s the bank that is out the money. And that’s okay - this is part of the reason card transactions have a 3% fee on them, so banks can easily absorb fraud losses.
I hate this stuff (it is my job to find it and prevent it at banks) but continue the course you are on - do nothing as it is not your problem to fix, and trying to fix it is what the scammer is hoping for. And if the bank doesn’t try to claw this back within three months, enjoy the funds and take comfort that the victim probably was covered by his/her bank, and the bank plans for this happening and makes plenty to offset it.
You’re certainly right as you work in the field, but unless I actually needed the money for something important I’d still leave it for a year.
Or you can play it even safer, and cut me a check for 500$ right now*, and I’ll take care of everything for you with Paypal, the crook, AND the thief. Scout’s Honor!
*extra 25$ is my service fee
I just realized that there’s such a tell. Americans don’t do XXX$. They do $XXX.
Also, I didn’t mention this earlier, but when they first contacted me about the refund they sent me another 25 cents. Which is probably how the scam works. I send the refund in the request that had the 25-cents sent with it, but I type in $475, and suddenly it’s coming from my account?
Is there some way we can scam the scammer and steal all his money?
They accidentally sent $475, canceled, then accidentally did it again, eh?
George isn’t very good at this.