From: "Tim" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Money mule (type of scam)
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 13:29:10 +0000 (UTC)

> "Phil Thompson" wrote
> > Found this :-
> > http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/what_mule.html
> > after police arrested a kid trying to pay a very
> > large cheque into his account in the local NatWest.
> >
> > Apparently part of an email based money laundering scam.
>
"Andy Pandy" wrote
> Yup - it's been around a while...
> ... The "money mule" is the real victim to the scam -
> the person who's been phished gets the transaction
> to the money mule reversed leaving the money
> mule with a great big hole in their account.

Why doesn't the mule *also* get their transaction, to the scammer,
reversed - in exactly the same way as the "person who's been phished" does?

"Andy Pandy" wrote
> A variation on this is the "accidently paying too much" scam - where
> someone agrees to buy an item (perhaps on ebay, or a small ad) for
> say £50. But the buyer sends a cheque for £500. Seller then contacts
> buyer - buyer says "oops I was buying something else for £500 and
> sent you the wrong cheque - can you bank it and send me a refund".
>
> Seller goes along with this, pays the cheque in, ...

... asking for 'special presentation' (or whatever it is called), where the
bank will take longer to get funds available but will confirm that they
aren't dodgy first ...
[Well you would, wouldn't you?  ;-) ]

"Andy Pandy" wrote
> ... waits for it to clear, phones his bank
> to check, they tell him cheque has ...

... been bounced.  So seller doesn't send anything to the bogus buyer.

Question is, does the seller get to keep any interest for the few days (or
more) before the fraud is discovered?