Internet check scam attempt surfaces BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.net
When Mary Ellen Hawkins got the Wal-Mart cashier’s checks Friday in the mail, she had an inkling something was wrong. She had signed up at a workfrom-home Web site relating to fabric. She’s a seamstress, so it was right up her alley, she said. But the “work” ended up being cashing checks and fowarding a portion of the cash. She took the checks to Wal-Mart, figuring they would identify them if they were fake. They did, and for her trouble, she got to speak to security and Glenville Police Det. Michael Lamb. “The first thing he said, of course, was ‘If it sounds too good to be true.’ ” Hawkins said. Lamb said Friday he investigated and found Hawkins to be a victim. Scammers had sent the checks, hoping for a payday. E-mail messages before the checks were sent came from an address with the “.de” suffix, Hawkins said. That suffix is German. The checks came from Wisconsin, with instructions to cash them, and send the cash to an address in Africa, Lamb said. For her trouble, she could keep 10 percent. Hawkins appears to have avoided the worst of the scam. The checks are usually cashed, with a bank only finding out later that they were bad, according to Snopes.com urban legend Web site. The check-casher is then left on the hook for the lost money. Another version has an online car seller contacted by a buyer from Africa, who sends a cashier’s check for over the amount. The buyer then asks the excess cash be forwarded to another address in the United States. The scam works, according to the Web site, because banks are required to make cash from cashier’s checks available within one to fi ve days. It can take much longer to determine them a forgery.
And what was Ms. Hawking thinking. I have received these emails for the last couple of years. Not to mention, there have been warnings about this particular scam on TV, radio and most printed media. Beware...beware!!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Like the police department said, if it sounds too good to be true it probably it most likely is, or there's no free lunch, you can't get something for nothing, and so many more slogans apply to these scams.
ALBANY — City police say a man who robbed a woman of $5,000 in the downtown area earlier this month may be the same one who committed a similar crime last year. Police said the suspect approached a woman about 12:45 p.m. June 6 in front of 110 State St. He told her he was from Africa, his brother had died in the military and he needed money right away from a bank, police said. The man showed her a large amount of money that he already had on him, police said, and asked her if she would take out money for him, basically loan him the money and he’d reimburse her right away. Police said this is known as a “Nigerian scam”. The woman wasn’t convinced, police said, so the suspect told her he had a gun, gestured to his jacket as if he had a weapon and told her to take money out of her account and give it to him. She went to the State Employees Federal Credit Union on State Street, withdrew $5,000 and turned it over to the suspect, police said. The woman did not notify anyone in the bank, police said, because the suspect followed her into the bank and stood next to her when she approached the teller. As they left the bank, the man took a handkerchief wrapped around what appeared to be money and put it in the woman’s pants pocket and told her not to touch it until he left, police said. When she opened the handkerchief later, police said, she found wads of paper inside. A similar incident occurred last year in the downtown area and that suspect was never caught, police said. The suspect in the latest incident is described as black man with a heavy African accent, 5-foot-9, 160 pounds, with a white pressed shirt and striped tie, police said.
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