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]