As long as the retailer prints a disclosure somewhere on the check, it's legal.

Born yesterday, submitter? I've been getting checks in the mail for decades. And they all have a lengthy disclosure statement above where you endorse the check, like Bathia_Mapes said.

How about just refusing to pay up? When they get ready to go to collection slam them with ugly publicity. Make them look like the scumbags that they are IN THE MEDIA SPOTLIGHT.

/Legal doesn't equal ethical

Bathia_Mapes: As long as the retailer prints a disclosure somewhere on the check, it's legal.

Does the check come with a loupe?

What can you buy for nine bucks? A pair of socks?

I know people who are otherwise smart that cash checks like these, or outright scam ones (ie, you won the Candian lottery! Just cash this check from some random business in the US and send us half of it back!) and then get confused and angry when it backfires on them.

Here's a hint: If someone sends you a check in the mail and you didn't do anything to earn it, don't run to the bank to cash it.

This used to be common when long distance companies were fighting hard for cutomers. On the front the check was for $5.00 or something. On the back or in the fine print it said it was $5.00 and an agreement to have your long distance service switched. I remember one arrived at an office in MIT. We talked about cashing it. No way could the company successfully slam the office's long distance service, or MIT's. MIT has a telephone exchange with its own 5ESS. In the end we decided not to. (Arguably, cashing it would be fraud.)

Bathia_Mapes: As long as the retailer prints a disclosure somewhere on the check, it's legal.

Maybe. It depends on whether or not a reasonable person would find the practice deceptive.

I get checks like this from my credit card company for $10 or so. But if you read closely, you're enrolling into some sort of credit protection plan. As much as I like free money, those checks go right into my shredder.

If you are dumb enough to not question why you got a check then you deserve to be fleeced.

Cheers! I wonder why no one else has thought of this..


/obscure

Reading the fine print is always a good idea. Cashing unexpected checks is always a bad idea.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This applies to receiving "free" money that you didn't ask for or earn.

lajimi: How about just refusing to pay up? When they get ready to go to collection slam them with ugly publicity. Make them look like the scumbags that they are IN THE MEDIA SPOTLIGHT.

/Legal doesn't equal ethical

Then they close that shell of a larger company, and open another shell with a different name. The only place they got the Haband name from was buying a marketing list, they just use another list with from different genre (say, knick-knacks instead of slacks/clothing).

me texan: /obscure

Not at all.

But if Haband and other retailers also want you to sign up for 'rewards' and buyers clubs, why don't they simply ask up-front and directly?

Because fewer people would fall for it? Remind me not to go into business with the author.

It's just like those credit card offers I get in the mail. You look at the terms and conditions and there's a $72 annual fee (billed monthly) a $99 processing fee, a $79 program fee, and tons of other shiat. I swear I could heat my apartment with junk mail.

Reading the fine print is bad for your eyes.
Just sign it, it's alright!
Some nice company is giving you FREE money!
Sign. Sign! SIGN!

Some people never learn.. If somebody is trying to give you something for free, they want something from you.

Free Credit report dot com!

/Offer implies enrollment in Triple Advantage

Nightjars: Some people never learn.. If somebody is trying to give you something for free, they want something from you.

What do you mean? I recently received an email saying that I won 10 million dollars from Microsoft. Microsoft is doing their "global corporate duty" in providing the money for this lottery and they even randomly picked my email address for this lottery.

I replied to the lottery director, located in London, using his Yahoo email address. I don't know why Microsoft would have their lottery administered in London by some guy using a Yahoo email address but it seemed genuine enough to me. I'll be getting my check just as soon as I send a $3000 payment to some other guy in Africa via Western Union so they can handle the paper work.

But it doesn't matter because I'll be getting $10 million in no time. There was nothing in the email that said they wanted something for this free money.

I almost got hit with one of these from a video card maker that i was expecting a rebate from, the real rebate check showed up the same day and the fake one was for the exact same amount and if i had cased it would have cost me 250 bucks a month for credit score monitoring.

In other news, Drew considers sending out $5 checks to Fark Liters with microscopic print on it, except for the big lettering on the back that reads "You'll Get Over It"

Then there's Patrick Combs (new window).

Benn getting these for years Subby. They go straight in the shredder. Anyone dumb enough to cash these deserves what they get.

Can we do this to companies though? Send a check to their accounts recieveable, if they cash it, they agree to pay $XXX per month for a year? I'm sure many won't cash it, but someone is gonna slip...

renstar: Can we do this to companies though? Send a check to their accounts recieveable, if they cash it, they agree to pay $XXX per month for a year? I'm sure many won't cash it, but someone is gonna slip...

Not a bad idea, but make the conditions something like "Transfer to Payer All Corporate Assets of payee"

Send it only to those who use this disgusting practice, and see how they challenge it in the courts without farking themselves in the ass.

If this is still surprising to anyone they're still winning. I've been getting this kind of crap since I was 18, although *most* of the time it's some BS add on for my credit card accounts.

HAHAH!

I'm no fool!

I'm put my check into the free safe I'm getting for buying those valuable uncirculated coin sets!

Can we do this to companies though? Send a check to their accounts recieveable, if they cash it, they agree to pay $XXX per month for a year?

You can't do it with just plain money. The courts wouldn't enforce a contract where you pay them $5 now and they pay you $100 per month for a year. You have to provide a legitimate but overpriced service.

I don't think you can do it by altering a regular payment either. There is a rule against trying to slip in fine print on certain essential business forms. Otherwise you'd think you were signing for a package and then find that the back of the packing slip was a contract to sell your business to Microsoft for $1.

But if you, with no prior business relationship, sent a $10 check that was in effect a $10 discount off the first year of PC dust removal services at $2,000 per year... I don't know.

I love these. If you sign up with a temporary credit card, good luck to them.

Otherwise sign up and cancel. Free Money isn't always easy to get.

ZAZ:
The courts wouldn't enforce a contract where you pay them $5 now and they pay you $100 per month for a year. You have to provide a legitimate but overpriced service.

Gotcha. They will be mailed grocery coupons on a monthly basis. Say, the ones from my Sunday paper. At a rate of $300 per year. Sounds commensurate.

SingletonFactoryHere's a hint: If someone sends you a check in the mail and you didn't do anything to earn it, don't run to the bank to cash it.

The welfare system would like a word with you.

ZAZ: This used to be common when long distance companies were fighting hard for cutomers. On the front the check was for $5.00 or something. On the back or in the fine print it said it was $5.00 and an agreement to have your long distance service switched.

I remember those days...made myself some beer money in the late 90s doing that. I got one of those checks from MCI for like $10 where cashing it switched me to their service. Since my monthly long distance bill was usually under $2 anyway, I figured what the hell.

A month or two later AT&T sent me an envelope - "we want you back! Here's a $20 check to switch to AT&T!" Lather, rinse, repeat for about 3 years.

SingletonFactory: I know people who are otherwise smart that cash checks like these, or outright scam ones (ie, you won the Candian lottery! Just cash this check from some random business in the US and send us half of it back!) and then get confused and angry when it backfires on them.

Here's a hint: If someone sends you a check in the mail and you didn't do anything to earn it, don't run to the bank to cash it.

Wish my ex-wife would take that advice.

I think one of those computer DVD how-to companies was doing something like this. I know those penis pill guys do this shiat all the time.

Sue them all. Do it now, and I'll give you *$1. **

* Depositing the $1 agrees to enroll the depositor in a "Kick in the sack" weekly plan.
** Not actually offering this
*** Asterisks, the new slashies

ZAZ: This used to be common when long distance companies were fighting hard for cutomers. On the front the check was for $5.00 or something. On the back or in the fine print it said it was $5.00 and an agreement to have your long distance service switched. I remember one arrived at an office in MIT. We talked about cashing it. No way could the company successfully slam the office's long distance service, or MIT's. MIT has a telephone exchange with its own 5ESS. In the end we decided not to. (Arguably, cashing it would be fraud.)

back in the day I used to get $100 checks from LD companies wanting me to switch, so I'd cash the check, switch then call my old carrier the next day and switch back. Usually I could even get the old company to eat the $5 switching fee.

I think I made like $6-700 that way during the height of the consumer LD wars

My credit card company did this to me as well. I paid off the balance and got a check in the mail, I assumed it was an overage from the payoff, but they signed me up for this marketing thing. I didn't even see the small print. It's such a scam. Companies shouldn't be allowed to sell you products on the back of checks. They are hoping you miss the fine print and I'm sure there are large enough percentage of people that don't.

renstar: Can we do this to companies though? Send a check to their accounts recieveable, if they cash it, they agree to pay $XXX per month for a year? I'm sure many won't cash it, but someone is gonna slip...

Companies get their share of these scams as well. (I mean companies in general) Usually they're bills for listings in some "industry" directories that may or may not exist.

I don't know so much over in the US, but in Europe, where a lot of people take long vacations, so the summer is a good time to send them. Since most people take long summer vacations, usually there's someone filling in for A/P, so it might go unnoticed...

SingletonFactory:
Here's a hint: If someone sends you a check in the mail and you didn't do anything to earn it, don't run to the bank to cash it.

Bears repeating ...

SingletonFactory: Here's a hint: If someone sends you a check in the mail and you didn't do anything to earn it, don't run to the bank to cash it.

Thread over. Just everybody keep copying and pasting that until it sinks in.

hitmanric: SingletonFactoryHere's a hint: If someone sends you a check in the mail and you didn't do anything to earn it, don't run to the bank to cash it.

The welfare system would like a word with you.

Tommy Moo: SingletonFactory: Here's a hint: If someone sends you a check in the mail and you didn't do anything to earn it, don't run to the bank to cash it.

Thread over. Just everybody keep copying and pasting that until it sinks in.

THIS and THIS.