BEAT TO THE BENCH BY CHIEF ROBERT KISH for
8/7/07
This office has been advised of many scams out there, via mail and internet. One
of the more prevalent is middle-aged and elderly people receiving checks in the
mail for around $5,000.00 saying they won the lottery, some type of contest or
something else that they never signed up for. We have had people deposit these
checks in their account and when they wrote against the account, they learned
the check they deposited was as phony as the contest they allegedly won. Their
troubles then begin, as there is no recourse against the scam artist, as they
are either out of state or country and the bank can come after the victim for
restitution.
So if you get a check in the mail due to something you know nothing about,
shred, tear it up or burn it. Do not deposit it, as it is worthless. One lady of
our town brought in a scam check after she checked with the bank, as she felt it
was trouble, and we confirmed and shredded it with her blessing. The federal
authorities work some major scam cases but do not do anything with these smaller
scams, as there are so many and they also have limited resources. The local
police cannot go to Canada or England or Africa where many of these cases
originate, so these rip-off artists fall between the cracks.
The scammers are so bold, they identify themselves as banks on the internet in
e-mails and they even send these scams to the police station’s computers, trying
for victims. They are nearly impossible to trace back and most have invalid or
no return e-mail accounts.
Some scams involve "lawyers" from Africa and Europe looking for people to give
them their checking account numbers, so they can deposit inheritance monies in
your bank account, as it is unsafe in their country, and you will get a
percentage. What you will get if you fall for such a scam, is a cleaned out bank
account.
We have written about this in the past and one of our more eloquent
investigators, Sgt Hartung, has informed the public about some of the many
scams, but the scams have not stopped although the number of victims have
decreased. People are becoming more suspicious, as I talked to one last week,
which prompted this article. And just today, I spoke with another that felt
people need to be aware of a scam she received in the mail. It was just one of
the many, from Antigo, Wisconsin and indicated she had won just under $5,000 but
she was too shrewd to fall for the ploy. Be like this lady, don’t be tricked,
scammed, hoodwinked, bamboozled or ripped off. If it looks too good or
suspicious, check with the bank or come see us, but don’t cash that check or
give your banking information out. Call the police if you have any questions.
Thank you.