Don Murphy - Facebook

We nearly got caught at work. We had an enquiry from somewhere in the Middle East which we responded to with a quote. We got a call about a week later from our bank to say that a very large cheque had arrived but posted to a different branch than our own. They were a bit suspicious so sent it to us so we could decide what to do with it. It was for nearly twice as much as the original quote. We then got an email from the company who had sent the cheque apologising for their error, and could we transfer the overpayment back to their bank.

Luckily we realised that the plan was to cancel the cheque as soon as we made the transfer so we didn't bank it. Actually I had a great time stringing them along for about two weeks claiming that the transfer was on it's way, or could they raise a cheque for the right amount if we promised not to cash the first one before I finally told them we had no intention of cashing their cheque as it was obviously wrong. Bizarrely, a week later we had the same enquiry email through again, but from a different name. Cue more emails back pointing out that trying the same scam on the same company wasn't the best use of their resources and that, if they were that short of cash, I had the details of a long lost Nigerian relative who apparently had millions to give away....

Apparently they only need a hit rate of 1 in 10 milllion for it to be worthwhile. They get many more then this apparently.