Can scammers still cash checks from someone who died years ago?

[FunkyMonkee]

My aunt allowed herself to be scammed out of over $11,000,.000 before she died. While going through some of her stuff, I found about a dozen checks she made out and intended to send to these scammers but never did so, I'm thinking, is it possible to catch them by sending one of those checks to them and then have the bank in on it so they can go after whoever tries to cash them?

Updates

2 mo

The original question was: what would happen to someone who tried to cash a check made out by a person that was dead a few years?

[molonski2]

11,000,000 ? Really? Wholly sht

If the account is not closed then the checks could be cashed however once probate is granted , of an estate this size , the acting solicitor will normally have the accounts closed.

There could be no claim against the estate to the trustees.

[FunkyMonkee]

But, can the checks be used to try to catch the scammers if they try to cash one?

[molonski2]

Ohh right.. sorry misread it.

I would think so , maybe talk to the law and see if you can trap them?

If she lost 11 mill.
Was that it? Or did she have more to loose? What a shame that these prks got into her..
Probably overseas based?

[FunkyMonkee]

Next time I got to a bank, I'll ask them.
She mortgaged the house and the car then she died leaving the house and the mortgage to me. I was paying her bills the last 3 months she was alive. I got a bunch of money a few months later and bought the car back. I WOULD'VE paid off the mortgage but the bank refused to take my money! They wanted HERS! Now that I don't have the money, they WILL take mine, or the house!
One bunch was in s. America, another was in Jamaica, a bunch of them (psychics!!) were in France, Belgium, Germany, England, etc., and another that was supposedly in Philly. Then there were a bunch of religious people asking for money!! She had a heart of gold but a brain of mashed potatoes!!
BUT, SHE WAS AFRAID TO GET THE INTERNET BECAUSE SHE HEARD PEOPLE WOULD SCAM HER!!

[molonski2]

OMG.. All that with no internet? Thank God she didn't have that..
So she did leave a will? You were the executor right?

[Cidknee]

Talk to the bank. But, is there an address or is it a po box?

[FunkyMonkee]

Most of the ones I found, so far, were addressed to overseas psychics. I'll have to check on them being PO boxes. She got 6 or 7 of these every day!!

[FunkyMonkee]

I just found another huge stack of them, no checks inside, though. I can only guess that, "Case Postale", "Postbus" and "CP" mean., P O Box.

[WhitneySnow]

I’m not an expert, but I think most banks stop honoring checks six months after they’re written. Plus I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to cash a dead person’s checks.

[FunkyMonkee]

I was thinking that, too but, at least they might be able to find out who's trying to cash them.
Well, it's also illegal to scam them out of every dime they've got but, they still do it!!

[WhitneySnow]

Good point! You probably won’t get in trouble if you catch them. Go for it!!!

[FunkyMonkee]

Just found another huge stack of letters that she never mailed but, no checks in this one. Austria, Czech rep., the Netherlands, Switzerland, Budapest, France, Portugal Italy... I DID, however, find receipts and the backing cards for Amazon gift cards that I'm sure she bought for scammers!! I was with her at one point when she did that!! I have to wonder if Amazon or the feds can find out who cashed those in and bust THEIR ass!!
It was a few weeks before she died. One of the scammers got some other sucker to send my aunt a large check and she was told to go to one of those check cashing places to cash it. We went to one and they refused to cash it but, I forget why. Most likely just because she needed something to prove herself. So, we went to another several miles away and they cashed it for her but, right after she cashed it, the woman in Ohio that sent her the check had it stopped! By the time the check cashing place found out about it and asked for their money back, she was dead! Well, after she got that money, she was told to go to a Wal-Mart and buy a couple gift cards or game play cards and once she did, she was to call up some other woman on the phone and tell her the serial numbers on the back! She called her right in the store and gave her the numbers!! I think the cards cost her at least $300. On the way to do this, she was complaining about not having money to pay a few bills!! WELL, DUUUUH!!! I can't IMAGINE WHY!!! I kept TELLING HER NOT to get the cards and just use the money for the bills but, she WOULDN'T listen to me!!! NOBODY EVER DOES!!! But, they call ME the idiot!! I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about!!
When she was little, she used to love going to someone's car, taking off the gas cap and smelling the fumes!! Maybe that's why she refused to listen to anyone telling her she was being scammed!!

[WhitneySnow]

Was it $110,000 or $11 million?

[midnightmoon05]

If she wrote them willingly and sent them… hard to call that as scam.
can try to stop them moving forward … also you may need proof of death certificate