Scammed!!! Help?

[Linda Weygant]

I had a tenant who asked me to set up an online payment service for her or her father to make rent payments to.  Her father is from California.

I set it up through my QuickBooks software using the Intuit Payment Network.  Her father sent several payments from the service totalling $4000.00 over the past two months through his business called Top Leading.

Today, I received an email notification from my bank that I was about to NSF.  I logged in and saw that the $4000 worth of payments were all reversing.  When I logged into the Intuit Payment Network the payments showed as canceled due to incorrectly entered bank information.

I rushed down to my bank with a deposit to make sure I don't bounce checks, so that's all good.

I called Top Leading in California and they have never heard of my tenant, her father or me.  They said they've also been the victim of fraud recently and have an ongoing investigation with the police

Surprise, surprise, I can't get in touch with my tenant now either.

What's the next step?

[Jonathan David]

Steal A candy bar from Walmart and they will slap you in jail, steal thousands of dollars electronically, and everybody shrugs their shoulders. If it is a fraud and a cross state lines this could be a federal issue, mail fraud, wire fraud