I have included both donations together for convenience and I will
need you to re-direct the balance $1,800.00 on my behalf.

YES, THIS IS A SCAM.

This is an especially heartbreaking one because it sounds so real.  But
the sentence I quoted above gives it away.

If anyone doesn't already know, this is how this scams works.  The check
they send you is bogus, but it is well-forged and will take several days
or even weeks for this to be discovered.  Many people do not realize that
even if a check "clears", if it is later found to be forged, the bank
will take the money back (and probably hit you with a fee and possibly a
criminal investigation).  You write a check, which is sent not to them
directly but to a dummy organization.  They take the $1800 and run.
Hopefully you have the money to cover it and don't depend on the check
they sent you; otherwise you get prosecuted for writing a bad check.

There is absolutely NO reason for someone to write a donation check and
ask you to send part of it elsewhere.  If you are a 501c3, then you are
also endangering your status, because even if everything were on the
up-and-up, the donor can take a tax deduction for the whole donation,
even though the amount sent on should not get that treatment.  You are,
at best, helping the donor to do money-laundering and evade taxes --
itself a potential crime.

I am a violinmaker, and a variation of this has appeared in the violin
world.  Someone wants to buy a violin, but expresses doubt over the exact
amount -- perhaps they are from a different country, and the currency
fluctuates.  So they send a bank check well over the amount.  They ask
that the violin be sent by a designated private courier service, and a
check for the 'change' be included with the violin.  In the end, the
check proves to be forged, and the maker is out both the instrument and
the 'change'.  A bad scam.

This is the first I've seen of this scam directed at shelters.  It's
despicable.

--Claire
[Posted in FML issue 5285]