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Am I being scammed?

Update: I ignored one email from "Belfield," and today there's another, insisting he will send a check by courier - however I have never given him my street address. Due to my somewhat unusual name he may actually find my mother's address.

He might be getting paid by the email and is trying to show his superiors his work product.

Do I respond saying don't send the check, or continue to ignore him?
Just respond saying, due to issues in the past with bounced cheques, you will need to be paid by Bankers draft. This is non-negotiable.
 
Update: I ignored one email from "Belfield," and today there's another, insisting he will send a check by courier - however I have never given him my street address. Due to my somewhat unusual name he may actually find my mother's address.

He might be getting paid by the email and is trying to show his superiors his work product.

Do I respond saying don't send the check, or continue to ignore him?

I'd vote for ignore. It is the way that is least likely to encourage him, and least likely to rile him into trying to do anything nasty to you.

Lothian- do Banker's drafts work differently from Cashier's checks in the USA? There are scams involving Cashier's checks here. I was surprised to hear that in many circumstances receiving and even cashing a Cashier's check does not insure that the money is really there!

https://www.thebalance.com/cashier-s-check-fraud-315795
 
The British spelling is cheque, not check. And Levi Belfield is a serial killer; Belfield is not a likely first name!

If he keeps mithering on about sending you a 'check', you could give him a sort of made up address like:

Financial Crimes Unit
<city> Police
etc

And tell him that you have all foreign cheques sent to be checked by an expert at the police department before you take them to the bank. He'll probably stop emailing you after that!
 
Lothian- do Banker's drafts work differently from Cashier's checks in the USA? There are scams involving Cashier's checks here. I was surprised to hear that in many circumstances receiving and even cashing a Cashier's check does not insure that the money is really there!
I think they are different. They are teller's checks in the USA
 
You get a washed check which you deposit and then wire the guy his refud with actual money. When the bank gets around to bouncing the check, your wired money will be long gone.
That couldn't possibly work! I wouldn't be wiring out a single cent until my bank confirmed that the cheque had cleared.

Are you saying that there could possibly be people around who wouldn't wait for the cheque to clear?
 
Update: I ignored one email from "Belfield," and today there's another, insisting he will send a check by courier - however I have never given him my street address. Due to my somewhat unusual name he may actually find my mother's address.

He might be getting paid by the email and is trying to show his superiors his work product.

Do I respond saying don't send the check, or continue to ignore him?
Let him send it. Turn it over to the cops as a fraudulent check.

I'm guessing though, he doesn't have your address and is trying to coax it out of you. Or the next step will be something to the effect it's better if he direct deposits it. Don't give him the account numbers but if he does make that request, notify the bank.
 
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That couldn't possibly work! I wouldn't be wiring out a single cent until my bank confirmed that the cheque had cleared.

Are you saying that there could possibly be people around who wouldn't wait for the cheque to clear?
But surprisingly enough, even checks that have 'cleared' can be uncleared later. I learned this inquiring about taking checks from eBay customers. You can tell them you'll send the item when the check clears, but the bank will tell you even a cleared check can be taken back.

(This was before PayPay was the norm mind you, I don't take checks.)
 
I should have known that banks would lie about whether a check cleared or not. :boggled:

The only way to be sure a check has cleared is to take it to a branch of the bank it is drawn on and walk away with cash. That's what I ended up doing before I insisted buyers use PayPal.
 
Checks or cheques.

If this is a de-rail, please remove it. Anyway, as an Ebay seller with nearly 8000 sales, I only had one bad check before Ebay forced Paypal down our throats. Paypal is convenient but their fees suck. I'd rather buyers could use Paypal if they wanted but retained the option of sending me a check or money order. But Ebay was just too greedy to allow that.
 
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