BlogEvolve.com

A few months ago I received a plain window envelope in the mail with a return address of a post office box in Mexico, Missouri printed in small letters on the flap. I assumed it was another mortgage refinance offer and when I opened it my suspicions seemed to be confirmed as it contained a letter and a check. Again, I made a quick assumption and assumed that the $2,950 check was one of those that could only be used to pay the processing fees on a new mortgage and was about to throw it away when I noticed that it was a real check made out to me with no strings attached!

Opening the letter I discovered that I was the winner of some world wide lottery, which I had never entered. The fact that I had never entered the lottery, plus the bad grammar and incorrect information in the letter, convinced me that this was a scam of some kind.

But I still had, what looked like a legitimate check for $2,950. The letter informed me that I had won $55,000 and the $2,950 was just an advance to cover the taxes that I supposedly had to pay before they could release the remainder of my winnings. The letter indicated that I was to cash the check and then call a number in Canada to get instructions on where to send the $2,950 to pay the taxes.

The whole thing was obviously a scam but I couldn't figure out how the scammers would make their money. I was also tempted to turn the tables on them, by cashing the check and simply keeping the money while forgetting about the remainder of the $55,000 I was supposed to have won. But that seemed too simple and I knew there had to be some other angle. After all, these guys were in this to steal money from me so they were not about to design something that would allow the potential victims to keep the $2,950 they were mailing out.

So, I went to my local bank and asked to speak with the manager. As soon as I took the check out and started to speak she broke into a laugh and said “so you got one of those too?” I said “yes” and quickly assured her that I knew it was a scam and was not about to cash it but was curious as to how the scam worked.

The branch manager explained to me that the check was real but it was stolen. Apparently what the scammers had done was obtain a copy of one of this company's checks and then used a computer create a blank version of the check. Once they had the check they used a simple merge program to pull up a long list of names and addresses they had obtained and then merged the name file with the check file and ran off a few thousand copies of the check with each one made out to a different individual. The checks were mailed and when the recipients received the letter and called the number in the letter (I did not do this) they would be told to cash the check, withdraw the money and send it to an address in eastern Europe via Western Union Money Transfer. By the time the company, whose checks were being used, discovered what was happening, the scammers would have received the money and disappeared.

When the company whose checks were being used discovered what was happening they would report it to their bank which would reverse the check transactions to restore the funds to the company's account and then send the checks back to the depositor's banks which would, in turn, reverse the deposit and remove the money from the depositor's accounts. Most of the banks would assess a service charge against the depositor's account to compensate for the cost of handling the stolen check that had been deposited. Also, many people, after having withdrawn the deposited funds per the instructions from the scammers, would find their accounts overdrawn as a result of the deposit being reversed – this would result in another fee for overdrawing their account.

I avoided these problems by not depositing the check. But, instead of shredding it, I scanned the check and letter (and used Microsoft Paint to remove my personal information) and posted what was intended to be a humorous piece describing my winning a lottery without having entered, it on my HubPages blog. I did, however, describe the scam, posted the copies of the letter and check and pointed out the factual and grammatical errors in the letter which were a tip-off to me that this was a scam.

You can imagine my surprise when the article turned out to be one of the most popular pieces that I have written and it has remained popular for the past six months. Close to 100 people have commented on it, most of them people who received checks from this or similar scams. Fortunately, most of those who commented on the article were thrilled with their good luck but decided to check before depositing the check that they received. When they saw my blog entry they realized that they were potential fraud victims and destroyed the checks. Unfortunately, a few didn't see the article until after they had deposited their check.

While I am obviously happy with the fact that the article has been widely read and that it has saved some people from losing close to $3,000 or more. However, the sad fact is that the article has been popular because so many other people have received these checks and decided to investigate before proceeding. I'm glad that I was able to help most of these people avoid being taken by the scam. Unfortunately, the people I have helped received their letters and checks from other groups who have been emerging to run the same scam. The fact that increasing numbers of scammers keep running this particular lottery scam is a clear indication that increasing numbers of people are being duped by the scam and are cashing the checks and sending the money to the scammers. Despite the fact that my article, which is just one of many such warnings to be found on the web, in the traditional press, on radio and television programs and on the fraud page of the websites of practically every law enforcement agency in North America (and probably in Europe and other places as well), scammers can still make big bucks running this scam and their success only serves to encourage more of their brethren to try the scam themselves.

My BlogEvolve

My HubPages

Bookmark/Search this post with:
| | | | | | | | | | |