Stranger sent me $12,100

Question

I have a small landscaping business and I advertised through Facebook. Some guy reached out to me via text message, asking me to do a job for him. He asked for a quote for installing sod in his front yard and I replied with $3,175. He agreed to that price.

He then asked me to assist him with with the ex-owner of the house. I asked him, what needs to be done? He said that he owes the ex-owner $10,000 and that the ex-owner has no way of receiving it. For he only has a credit card to pay with he has to do it as a transaction he will will send me $12,100. Once the money clears I have to Zelle or PayPal the ex-owner the $10,000 and keep $2,000 as down payment for the job and $100 for a tip.

I thought that this was some kind of joke so I agreed. He asked if I could manually process his card. I said no but I can invoice you. So I did and to my surprise, he actually paid. I think that I’m being scammed. What should I do?

Answer 1

This is certainly some variation of the overpayment scam

There are many variants, but they usually start with a fraudulent payment of some type into your account. They payment may be a bad check, a forged money order, or transfer from some third party's hacked bank account.

Keep in mind that it can sometimes take the bank several weeks to figure out that a deposit was fraudulent!. Banks will often "clear" a deposit in just a few days, but this is done as a courtesy. It doesn't keep the bank from reversing the transaction later on if they find out it was bogus. In the end it is your responsibility to make sure the payment is legitimate, not the bank's. In the meantime, you pay their accomplice the agreed amount. Typically they will tell you to pay their accomplice via some method that can't be reversed: cash, gift cards, or money wires.

The bank will eventually figure out that the deposit was bogus and undo the deposit into your account. You will be responsible for making up whatever portion of it you've already spent, including whatever portion you paid out to their accomplice! I've said "accomplice", but this scam is often run by a single person running both sides of the transaction.

Answer 2

From a comment

He didn’t send me the money straight to my bank he sent it through quickbooks my payment processing method which takes up to a couple weeks for the money to process idk if the bank is able to reverse the transaction before the money clears

Depending on the type of card (debit or credit), this might not be noticed for some time. Let's say they paid with a stolen credit card. A company or individual might not reconcile that statement more often than once a month (when the bill comes in), at which point that $12,100 will stand out. Then they file a chargeback against you. Intuit has a process to handle that, but you will almost certainly lose the dispute. In fact they warn you about this type of scam on their site

Asking for a cash refund on a credit card transaction is a strong indicator of credit card fraud.

In some cases, the cardholder may also file a dispute for the transaction after receiving cash, resulting in a possible chargeback to you as well.

To protect yourself from this type of activity, you should refund credit card transactions only as a credit back to the same card.

Contact Intuit immediately and let them know you think the transaction may be fraudulent. Don't deal with your bank, as they are a third party to the transaction in question. Intuit can likely debit the funds back and issue a refund so if there is a chargeback they handle it directly.

Answer 3

this is a scam, you are being duped.

call the police and report this.

Answer 4

It's not a problem. Tell him you will pay the land owner in 6 weeks. I'm looking forward to hear the answer that you'll get. Probably they'll need the money faster than that because the land owner's little daughter needs a kidney transplant.

No seriously, it is of course a scam, and a classical one. This one comes in many, many variations, but it is always the same thing.

1. You get money because <insert plausible reason>.
2. You are asked to somehow forward it to an accomplice (Nigerian prince, distant heir, aunt, land owner)
3. You do so.
4. ???
5. Profit

At (4) you notice that the original payment has meanwhile been revoked. For... whatever reason, and by whatever means. Only just, now it's too late because you already did (3). So, the other guy just magically doubled his money, and you, well... didn't make as much profit as you hoped for. The Prince won't answer your phone calls and the land owner turns out being not the land owner at all.

Thus, the only reasonable (or half-reasonable) things to do are to either not do anything at all (and inform police), or wait 6 weeks, and confirm that the money is still on your account before proceeding.

However, even after letting 6 weeks pass, it's doubtful whether you really want to do it because you cannot be sure you aren't aiding and abetting in money laundry. I mean, do you really want to risk 10 years of prison for a 100 dollar tip?

EDIT:
Another thing to consider just occurred to me, too, which might be worth yet another consideration. You stated in some comment that you received the money not personally, but via quickbook. Which means that the 12k that you have received is, by all legal means, income for which you have to pay tax!
Sure enough, with a little luck nobody will notice. But chances are that you get an audit, and these 12k that very clearly are income do not appear in your books, nor did you ever pay tax for them. That's bad, very bad, even for the vain chance that this isn't a scam.
But worse, imagine that after falling for a scam and losing 12k, you have to pay tax and a penalty... for a 12k income that you've never had.

Answer 5

In your question you say

He said that he owes the ex-owner $10,000 and that the ex-owner has no way of receiving it.

Followed by:

I have to Zelle or PayPal the ex-owner the $10,000

Right, so they do have a way of receiving it. You've made 2 contradictory statements which confirm you're aware they can receive the money (otherwise how would you - or indeed anyone else - be sending it to them if they had no means to receive it?).

Answer 6

most likely this is a scam, I suggest calling your bank and speaking with them.