Israeli arrested for sending people bad check notices

The scam involved an Israeli, William Troper, who sent collection notices to people claiming they had written bad checks on purchases at places such as Sears, True Value Hardware, Harry & Davids and Sam Goody.   The criminal complaint is juicier than most.

It includes the experience of several victims who called the phony collection agency complaining that they haven’t bounced a check.  The supposed credit agency (Check Processing Bureau) representative threatened them with court action.  Invariably this was enough to convince the victims to hand over the settlement amount ($100 – 200) to the fake agency.  Are people that afraid?  

The complaint doesn’t make clear whether this agency had access to the transactions in question.  Somehow scam artist must have known that the person at least made a purchase at the vendor in question.   I can’t believe someone would be that gullible if they were told they had made a charge at a vendor they never visited let alone bought something at.

Complaint courtesy Courthousenews