JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With a king size mattress taking up room in their garage, Action News reporter Amanda Warford and her husband turned to Craigslist.
But with a simple post, they quickly attracted a con man.
Within days, they heard from a man who called himself Brian, with a San Antonio area code.
He said he was moving to Jacksonville and wanted the mattress.
The problem was, he said, his secretary cut a check for nearly three times the asking price.
He apologized for the mistake and asked Warford and her husband to go ahead and cash it, and send the balance to his movers. He even told them to keep $100 for our trouble.
“To my greatest surprise the check was issued out in the sum of $2,050. I know this a terrible mistake... kindly take it to your Bank...balance should be sent to my mover...add $100 to cover the cost of your running around...Thanks again, Brian," the email read.
The original package that was sent to Warford and her husband was from a furniture store in Philadelphia.
Hours later, they received an envelope postmarked Pennsylvania. Inside, they found a piece of paper resembling a check.
Written, it said, from the Riverside County Sheriff's Office account in California.
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“We've got San Antonio, California, and Pennsylvania all mixed in together, and obviously something doesn't make sense,” said Tom Stephens.
Warford took the paperwork to Stephens, president of the Northeast Florida Better Business Bureau.
He had no doubt this was a scam, especially after Brian later asked Warford and her husband to send him cash. He even gave them an account number.
“All those are red flags waving briskly in the air,” Stephens said.
Warford contacted the Riverside County Sheriff's Office and confirmed that check was fake.
She even tracked down the real Brian in San Diego, who said he had no idea what she was talking about.
Warford met with Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to file a report and handed over the evidence to investigators.
It was the first step to catching then con man.
“They're very bold and very brazen,” said State Attorney Angela Corey.
Corey said scam reports like this are on the rise. She blames social media.
“We're going just as hard on these people as we can because they are bilking sometimes vulnerable people out of a lot of people. Luckily you're not vulnerable so you were able to catch it yourself,” Corey said.
But that investigation likely won't be easy. According to the BBB, this scam is usually run out of country.
But Stephens says the more people who take caution and tell police, the better chance they have of catching them.
“When there's enough victims it raises the bar more and more,” Stephens said.
Action News reached out to the Riverside Sheriff’s Office for comment about the scam.
"Yes, that is a bad check. We advised our accounting department and they have taken all the security precautions with the financial institution,” said Deputy Albert Martinez, a public information officer for the Riverside Sheriff's Office.
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