About

Value Shoppers is the name under which scammers defrauded consumers of large amounts of money. Consumers report that they were sent a large check, in several cases, over $3,000. The scammer asked the consumer to deposit the check in his or her bank account and send most of the money back to the scammer throught Western Union. The scammer said the consumer would be testing Western Union's fees.

The checks were counterfeit, and once they cleared completely through the banking clearing house system, the consumer's bank told the consumers the checks were no good and their accounts were overdrawn.

Banks release funds for deposited checks before the checks clear through the banking system. As a result, an account holder can withdraw against a fraudulent check before the bank has determined the check is worthless. The account holder is liable for the activities in his account and so must cover the withdrawals. In some cases, the account holder has even been charged with bank fraud.

Consumers should never accept a check from someone they don't know and then withdraw a significant amount of money, expecting the deposited check to cover it.