These types of check scams should be illegal.

If you look at the fine print you can get discounts at Circuit City, that has to be a great deal right?

Ugh, I get these types of checks from my bank. With bank logos and everything! I can't believe its legal.

Wait, this isn't a refund they are sending? They just send $10 in hopes you will sign it (and thus sign up for a service you don't really want)?

This has *GOT* to be illegal!?

Just cross out the terms. It is no longer a term of the contract.

After renting from Budget twice I got a random charge on my credit card a few months later without explanation. Both were reversed without a dispute but I have to wonder what they do with my credit card info.

@JohnAllison: Wrong.

I signed up for one of those "discount" programs when I booked a hotel with Priceline (I believe it was called Great Fun). They claimed a 10% refund, and then when I signed up claimed they would provide an additional 5% refund, which came to a total of 20 something dollars. Anyway, I followed their instructions to get the refund and I cancelled just before the 30 day trial period expired and was never charged anything. After a few weeks, I received a check for $10 with fine print that stated if I cashed it, I'd automatically be enrolled in their program. Since it was a) for the wrong amount and b) a scam, I decided to just shred it. They sent me over 10 repeat checks over the course of about 5 or 6 months before finally giving up. I was kind of wondering what would happen if I kept all of them and cashed them all at once, but it seemed like it might create too much of a headache to sort out cancelling everything again. I guess this is a fairly common scam.

I get crap like this all the time, often from my credit card (or used to, I haven't seen one in a while). People just don't seem to get that companies don't randomly send you money for no reason.

Years ago I received one of these mysterious retention checks from AT+T. The fine print on the check communicated the terms - by cashing the check I would allow them to switch the phone number on the front of the check to long distance service from AT+T. Funny thing was, the number on the front was not my phone number. So, the wife and I went out to dinner on AT+T. (It was a $100 check.)

I've gotten two or three of these checks linked to an order I placed with Haband over a year ago. If you don't have that card any more, or you want to call it 'lost' and get a new one, they can't charge to your old card, so cash the check and enjoy the free money. Or if you feel daring, cash the check, and watch for the materials to come in the mail,then call and cancel within 30 days. A bit of a hassle but might be worth it.
The card I ordered from Haband with is long gone, so I've gotten nearly 30.00 from these guys so far.

Well, Budget is officially crossed off the list of companies to do business with.

You can turn this kind of scam around and use it to your benefit. Some time back I was having a telephoned dispute with a creditor and offered them 50 cents on the dollar to settle it. They refused. I sent them a letter anyway with the 50% offer and a check; the letter said, "don't cash this unless you're accepting the offer," and on the back of the check I printed something very like what you see on that scan above: "Cashing or depositing this check constitutes acceptance of the terms outlined in the accompanying letter to settle account xxxx in full."

I was betting they could not resist cashing it, and they couldn't. I was also expecting they'd try to come after me for the rest, and they did. I told them to go screw, that they had accepted my offer and we were done. They said they'd send it to an attorney; I said, fine, go ahead. The attorney sent me a threatening letter; I sent back copies of the cashed check and the offer; I never heard from them again.

Epic win. :)

Watch out for this one. You can be scammed through Orbitz, too ... After completing a transaction, you may be told something along the lines of, "Click here to claim your prize/rebate/whatever." Do that, supply your year of birth and hometown and, voila, you're now a Trilegiant/"Great Fun" card carrying member. You can read more on Wikipedia ([en.wikipedia.org]). These guys have been busted before for things, so when you call to cancel your "membership," I tend to thing they will honor your request, but it can still be a major PITA.

Point of information - Trilegiant owns Shopper's Advantage, the "service" offered by restaurant.com as noted in a recent Consumerist post.

@bonzombiekitty: I used to get this crap a lot as well. Haven't seen one in a year or so though. Glad I never signed one.

@Marshfield: IIRC, Consumerist has featured more than one story will people have been charged on closed accounts. They just don't send you a bill, and tack on late charges before putting you in collections.

@Intertrode: I'm really surprised they're not PCI compliant. Companies typically aren't allowed to keep your CC information on file unless you specifically request it.

@tripnman: ...Or on the poor sap whose number that actually was.

@InfiniTrent: DO explain. JohnAllison's advice is de-rigure here on Consumerist.

@HRHKingFridayXX: "I can't believe its legal."

Welcome to the wonderful world of free market capitalism.

@gerrylum: If you were to call and ask "Why did you send me $10?" what would they say?

I think Bank of America tried something like this with me a few years ago...except it was a "survey" on travel. Fill out the survey, get a free mp3 player, be enrolled in a monthly fee-based travel discount "club" .

That was a couple months after I had been folded into their customer base after their purchase of Fleet. It kind of set the tone of how I've felt about them ever since.

@Ubik2501: Actually, the number on the check was my OLD number, and I was kind enough to call it before cashing the check just so I wouldn't force AT+T on another. All for bashing the faceless corp, don't want to screw my neighbor. (Okay, there is one neighbor, but that's for a different forum)

I rent 10-20 times a year, almost always from Budget, because they are so great to deal with. So, this promo really surprises me. I'm enrolled in their Fast Break program and they do keep my CC info on file with my consent, but I haven't received this promo from them.

I did get a surprise charge on my card once, after returning the car, but it was for a parking ticket I got with the car and forgot to pay. Didn't even try to argue my way out of that one for two reasons: The ticket was my responsibility, and Budget has been extremely fair with me on every rental. I don't want to mess with a good thing.

@tripnman: They agreed to let you slam them with AT&T while earning 100 bucks for yourself? Why would anyone agree to that?

@InfiniTrent: Well initial the changes.

That's interesting. I wonder if that is legally binding. I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to have conditions on a bearer instrument (although you can have a separate doc that references the check that you would also need to sign..)

@Corporate_guy: Oh, I'm just not being very clear today. My old number had yet to be reassigned, I called it first to confirm that. (do-do-doooh! We're sorry, the number you are calling has been changed, disconnected or...)

@JohnAllison:

I used to do this all the time with ATT! Never had a problem.

What happens if you cash the check WITHOUT signing the back of it? I never sign them when I put them in the ATM because my bank told me not to.

@JohnAllison: Even if that is legally correct, I'd love to listen in as you explain it to the person in India when you explain why you don't have to pay.

@GMFish: Heh, yeah blame it on the "market". The point was that just because you can sell something doesn't mean you should, ethically speaking. In a perfect world, everyone would be too smart to fall for something like this and they company would cease to exist. But we're not, there's still some idiot in middle america that falls for it.

@unobservant: The way it usually works is the language says "by cashing this check, you agree to sign up for the scam..."

...by the way, by reading my comment, you agree to send me $50 via PayPal to soandso [at] gmail [dot] com.

[imgs.xkcd.com]

@summerbee: I think the exception is for rental companies (hotels, cars, etc) with the understanding that they may find damages after you check out. Still, it should be for more than a week then.

@Xerloq: Lame! What if someone steals your mail and cashes it? Wait - I guess a small monthly fee wouldn't be your biggest problem, then - it would be that some dude is stealing your mail.

Never mind.

@Xerloq: Oh, and the payment didn't go through. Wasn't a valid email address format. OH HO.

@unobservant: I'll have to check the email address and get back to you with a new one. =/

@oneliketadow: Don't bother, do a chargeback with the credit card! Now, you've not only cost them $10 by cashing the check, but $35 for the unauthorized CC charge! Free market consumerism!

@JohnAllison: I just did the same thing with a security deposit refund check from my landlord. Envelope was empty save for the check, and above the endorsement line they had included some crap along the lines of:

"I hereby accept that this is the entirety of the security deposit to which I am entitled." (Complete paraphrase).

I wrote under it something like,

"I do not accept the above. I do not know what was taken from my security deposit nor why."

I have no idea if that's legally binding, but I don't care. They took off something like $150 from my $3800 deposit, which was probably reasonable. It was the principle of the thing that annoyed me.

seems like consumerist is bound to repeat itself, we covered this a while back
[consumerist.com]

@dwasifar: Your lucky they didn't use the routing and account number to draft your account anyways. Never pay a collections agency with a personal check!

Sounds like you won, but it could have been a massive headache if they drained your account (or cashed the check unsigned, etc...)

@dwasifar: Can this possibly be done with regular accounts, and not collection agencies?

Like, if I sent in my car payment, and on the check wrote "Cashing or depositing this check constitutes acceptance that this payment will settle my account in full."

Could that possibly hold up?

Budget's scum. They charged me to fill a car's tank when I brought it back *with a full tank* to their LAX facility. I didn't catch it until I was several thousand feet in the air going through my bag.

The worst part is that there's no real way to contest the charge since you'd need a picture of the fuel gauge at the time of the return. It was the first and last time I rented with them.

@joeblevins: I worked at a company selling roadside assistance for a couple weeks last month. One of our big selling points was that the program came with 'an exclusive savings club' for % off at a bunch of stores, and Circuit City was one of the ones we named. I wonder if they still use their name in those pitches.

@bonzombiekitty: I made over $100 that way. They kept sending them over and over again, I usually called during the free trial period to prevent further problems. They eventually stopped sending them after I cashed so many of them.

Also, I never signed the checks, therefore if they charged me, they couldn't even claim that I signed up for it; their checks always say that you must sign it and "positive id required" but check cashing is almost fully automated so nobody ever looks at the back of the checks.

@AlteredBeast: If your account is current, and you try and pay off your credit card this way they may very well reject the payment entirely, and then you will be late, with fees, etc. on top of what you didn't pay.

I have to have my banks start printing my checks with fine print. If you cash this check you agree to waive all future fees and charges for cable tv, cell phone service, etc etc etc.

I bet the contracts are unenforceable, but take em to small claims court to get the money back, it costs more in time and energy. Bring back the stockades!!!