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MESA, AZ — Last week, Chris Bailey’s Mesa business was attacked. As the owner of Ethos Construction Services in Mesa, Bailey prefers to build office space.
Instead, he is fighting money laundering.
Dozens of checks were written to strangers at his business.
Bailey learned more when a few check recipients called him to verify that the checks were genuine.
“You explained that you applied for a job online. The job was filled, but we really liked your resume, and we’d like to hire you as a personal assistant,” says Bailey.
The hired workers received a work instruction sheet and a check for $2,400.
Their job was to check customer service. They were told to deposit the check, keep $400 for payment and return the other $2,000 in gift cards.
It looks like the old fake check scam. You buy and send those gift cards only to find out the check is bad and your money is gone.
Often, the actual business name is used on the check so that they appear legitimate. But, since there is no real bank account, there is no money to earn.
Bailey’s situation is very different, as he showed ABC15 the checks he was depositing into the bank.
“This is our name, our routing number, our account number and actually a copy of my signature,” he says.
Somehow these fraudsters had Ethos’ real bank details.
“Someone grabbed one of our checks,” Bailey says.
And they made many copies.
Since June, more than 50 checks in various amounts have come in, totaling more than $170,000. They all went to his bank for payment.
He showed me a list of checks, all of which were denied by the bank.
Bailey has a system that allows him to accept or reject all checks. So I don’t lose any money. But he wonders how long this can continue.
When he told me that the check was mailed, we took it to the local office of the US Postal Inspector to investigate.
They say they have forwarded the matter to their fraud department.
Bailey said he has had no success getting any law enforcement agencies interested in the case.
And he said he’s concerned other small businesses could lose money to the same scam.
“How do we stop this? Who investigates this? The answer is the same as anyone. This is a very disturbing unpunished crime,” he says.
After investigating, Bailey said he thought he had found the bounced check and contacted one of the vendors for further investigation.
Hopefully, the Office of Postal Inspectors will investigate, and we’ll be able to tell you more soon.
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