Frank Helder

Victim Location 45014

Type of a scam Fake Check/Money Order

I wanted to share a scam attempt we had from a contact through a legit source (Wedding Wire) in December 2016. It’s the classic “I’ll send you extra money and you forward it to someone else” scam. The check actually arrived on Monday 12/21/16 and we’ve reported it to Chase (the bank the incredibly lifelike check was drawn on—also our own bank), Fairfield, Ohio Police (who will do nothing about it), and Wedding Wire. We received an inquiry through Wedding Wire from “Frank” from Denmark, and responses included stupidly hilarious answers (and grammar) as we played him along. For instance, we asked where the venue was and he replied Vernon Place in Fairfield, which is a street a few blocks from us, not a venue. Thanks to the ScamPulse.com for tipping me off to this type of scam years ago!

The scammer used 2 different phone numbers–one a Dayton area code 937-619-5238 for the initial texts and started calling us from ( a possibly spoofed number) at 222-5555. The scammer identified himself as Frank Helder and claimed his fiance was

Interestingly, the local police simply said they didn’t have the resources to deal with it, especially since it likely originated out of the country. The check was mailed from a Michigan address and the money was supposed to be sent to someone in Wisconsin who actually “has” a Facebook page. My wife, Lori, may be able to share more info if you want it. Even more surprisingly, Chase seemed unconcerned despite what is obviously felonious activity. Lori called Chase the day the check arrived and confirmed it was counterfeit, but was told to take it to a branch Tuesday, which she did, and the folks there simply shrugged it off despite confirming that the check was bogus. Last night she simply texted “Frank” saying we knew what he was trying to do and that he should not contact us again—he had a habit of trying to call us at 12:30AM especially when it was obvious we weren’t acting at the quick pace he wanted to.

We actually did have a couple living in China hire us last year and we were wary, but they had family here in the area and the wedding went off beautifully. They were straightforward and all transactions were handled cleanly and promptly. We were hoping for a similar situation this time, but red flags popped up after the first exchange, and the excess check amount slammed the door on knowing it was a scam. Just wanted to pass it along for the Scam Tracker! We have attached some of the e-m,ail and text correspondance and we have the check***