HARLEM — A man was swindled out of more than $2,000 after being involved in a mail check scam last week, police said.
A 26-year-old East Harlem man received what appeared to be a $2,180 cashier’s check from Heritage Bank on June 18 with instructions to deposit it in his personal bank account, police said. The man was then instructed to withdraw $1,900 in cash and place it in a Heritage Bank account belonging to someone named Yolanda Stephens, police said, and likely keep the remainder of the check for himself.
The man deposited the check June 20 in his Chase bank account and followed the instructions to withdraw, but a day later received a message from his bank that the check bounced. The man then contacted Heritage Bank, where a representative told him the check was a scam, police said.
The check was from a company called “Marco Rodriguez/Diligent Group Casting” with the name of the remitter as Mike Anderson, police said.
A web search by DNAinfo New York yielded no results of a company by that name.
No arrests have been made, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
