How To Spot, Avoid, and Report Fake Check Scams
The US consumer protection agency's short, clear explanation of overpayment and fake cheque scams: a payment arrives for more than agreed, you are asked to send the difference back, and weeks later the payment bounces. The same pattern targets freelancers everywhere, often dressed up as a new client buying equipment or software.
Guide
Career Growth
US Federal Trade Commission
10 minutes
Beginner
Free
What the guide explains
The Federal Trade Commission's consumer advice page, last updated June 2025, describes how fake cheque scams work. A scammer sends a cheque, or sometimes another payment, for more than you are owed and asks you to send the difference back or pass it to someone else, usually by gift card, wire transfer or cryptocurrency. The cheque looks real. Because banks must make deposited funds available quickly, the money appears in your account before the bank discovers the cheque is fake, which can take weeks. When it bounces, you owe the bank the full amount, and the money you sent is gone.
Why it matters for freelancers
Freelancers are an ideal target: you expect payments from strangers in other countries, and you want to please a new client. Common versions aimed at freelancers include:
- A new client "overpays" and asks you to refund the extra.
- A client sends money to buy software, equipment or a "licence" from their preferred vendor before you start.
- A job offer that asks you to pay for training, a starter kit or a certification.
- A mystery shopping or "quality check" task that involves sending money on.
The guide's core advice applies to all of them: money showing in your account is not proof the payment is good, and you should never send money back or onward through methods that cannot be reversed.
Rules to adopt
- Never send money to a client for any reason. Real clients pay you; they never need you to pay them or their suppliers.
- Reject any payment larger than the agreed amount and ask the client to send the correct one.
- Keep work on Upwork or Fiverr until a contract or order exists; both platforms warn that off-platform payment is a common scam route.
- Treat urgency, secrecy and gift cards or cryptocurrency as red flags.
Limits
It is written for people in the United States, so the reporting steps (FTC, US Postal Inspection Service, state Attorney General) are US-specific. The pattern of the scam is the same everywhere; report it to your bank, the platform and your own country's consumer or cybercrime authority.
Related reading
The FTC's separate Job Scams page covers paying for a job, reshipping and work-from-home schemes.
Source: consumer.ftc.gov, read 2026-09.
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