Fraud and Scam Awareness
Monday, June 07, 2010 08:08 am | 06/07/2010 08:08 am
Several times a year area residents will fall victim to various fraudulent schemes. While there are a variety of different scams being carried out, recently there have been several attempted locally with varying degrees of success.
Be cautious when participating in transactions online (eBay, Craigslist, employment opportunities) that involve cashing money orders, checks, cashiers checks etc. Forgery rings from the United States and around the world are using these transactions to pass these fraudulent documents. As an example, they will send a money order out for an amount in excess of the value of the item and request that you send a Western Union Moneygram to them. Since the Moneygram can be retrieved anywhere in the world, they get their money before the original check has worked its way through your bank. You then are out the money you sent in the Moneygram (and any of the money you may have already spent from the original check).
Last week a local man received notice that he had won the Publisher's Clearing House and was advised that he was receiving a check for $8.5 million, but must first pay a $6,000.00 fee by Moneygram. Fortunately, we were contacted and no money was lost. The same scam involves the Canadian Lottery. If you do not play the Canadian Lottery, then chances are you did not win anything in it.
There are also instances of "work from home" schemes that involve people cashing checks for a national or international business. Many times they will provide what appear to be legitimate and sophisticated business websites. Some have links to "cloned" sites and others are made up businesses. They advertise for you to work part-time from home. These scams can involve ten's of thousands of dollars and result in your arrest for forgery or theft, or at the very least require that you pay back the money.
