Victim Location 14213
Total money lost $2,599.99
Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order
I was sent a survey from a 3rd party agency wufoo I believe asking how likely would I be interested in advertising for a company to make extra funds for the holiday. On that survey I provided my email address and answered “likely.” A couple of weeks later a 3rd party agency called Imaging solutions emailed me saying that they were contracted with Dasani Water and would like to know if I was interested in having my car wrapped in a Dasani watermark decal for $500 dollars weekly. I answered yes and was instructed that payment would be mailed out as advancement because I would need to pay for the decal services once they sent a tech out. I didn’t suspect scam because they didn’t ask me for any secure information such as social, bank account etc. I received a check in the mail for $2599.99 along with an instructional to call the agency once the check was received. It said that 2099.99 was the fee for the technicians and $500 was for my first week of ly and every Friday after that Inwould receive $500 for the 3 month contract period. I followed that instruction. I was then told that I could go ahead and deposit the funds to my account and they would work on getting a technician out to me to do the car wrap. Once the technician was located I was instructed that I could cash app the funds to the technician. This didn’t make me weary because once the check was deposited my bank Navy Federal cleared the check and released the funds to me. I then cashed app the funds but cash app redeposited the funds to my account saying they were seeking to protect my funds. The cash app name was $JohnKimio. I told the guy named Matthew who I was corresponding with what happened and he said that is likely because I’ve never cash apped that much funds before. He then instructed me that I could get money orders and send it that way. Ding ding ding! I then purchased the money orders and sent them to the address. What should have been a red flag I’d that Matthew wouldn’t give me the address until i confirmed I was at the post office and had gotten the money orders by sending a pic of receipt. I followed the instructions and mailed the package out overnight. They next day I checked my account and it was a negative -2599.99 adjustment for returned check. I then contacted my bank and asked what happened and the check turned out to be invalid. I taken a picture of the check and then contacted the financial institution Spectrum Credit Union a sister company to Chevron Credit union. They were a legit credit union but confirmed the information on the check was invalid. No account number as such existed and neither was their an account holder with RE: name that showed on the check, which was Brianne Holloway. The check was secured with Docguard check paper that way the check passes through most banks security systems and it isn’t flagged until the funds are attempted to be collected from the “issuing agent” which at that time they were made aware that the check was not actually issued from their agency. The address that I sent the money orders to is 3 Bayberry Drive, Worcester MA 01607. The man who picks up the money orders is named Ivan Arteaga. This is where I received some sort of redemption for my stupidity. When I mailed the money orders out to this guy named Ivan it was overnight express but I checked the signature box! Unfortunately USPS didn’t get the signature like they were supposed to and this could have handed off the money orders to just any ole joe smoe. Since they made this mistake the inspector was called to investigate why the carrier didn’t do GM their job. Upon investigating they found out that this guy Ivan Arteaga is a real guy who has presented his I.d to them and has been getting express overnight packages for sometime now. They were able to tell him that they know the details of the operation ring he is in on and are looking to open a federal investigation on him if he doesn’t mail the money orders back. Unfortunately he has my money orders in hand but they stopped delivery to his house and some other peoples money orders were confiscated upon arrival to post office and will be returned to them from the USPS. They informed me that he has been in trouble with the law before and understands now that he has been caught committing a federal crime so he agreed to send me my money orders back hoping that they won’t report him. I will however be reporting his a**! Anyways I’m praying that he sends my money orders back to me and that this post will help someone. If you ever come in contact with a situation similar do not ever cash a check into your account. Take it to a check cashing agency and let them run it through their system where they will tell you it’s fraudukent and they will report the sender as well as file a police report. You will not be in trouble for anything. I know this because these stupid fools sent me another check saying that they apologize for the first one returning and that if I deposited this one it would be good and bring my account back up to balance. As if I would be so stupid to do it again. This time I was smart and took it into the check cashing agency! And unlike my silly bank they were able detect inauthenticity immediately.
Flagged info:
Company- Image(ing) Solutions
Representative- Matthew (no last name)
Check sender- Brianne Holloway
Money order received- Ivan Arteaga(real person)
Associated address: 3 Bayberry Dr, Worcester MA, 01607
Security check paper used: Docuguard
Check type: Pre-Printed Cashiers check