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December 17, 2009

DA’s office warns about scams

Special to the Review

The Henderson County District Attorney’s Office warns citizens to be aware of an emerging mail scam that is preying on Henderson County residents.

Last week, an Athens resident received a mailing from an alleged organization operating under the name of UBI Payment Services.

Fortunately, the Athens resident recognized the scam for what it was, and delivered the correspondence to the Henderson County DA’s office, instead of becoming another scam victim.

Generally, the scam works like this. The potential victim receives a very official-looking mailing from UBI Payment Services, which is labeled as a “Guaranteed Delivery Statement.”

The mailing is in the form of an official-looking letter addressed to the resident. The letter “guarantees” the recipient $5,000 for completing the included release form, and fulfilling the contest requirements, one of which is to complete a simple puzzle.

The sponsor of the contest is listed as Windsor-Morgan & Parker of Australia. In the fine print located on the back of the document is a clause which states, “The winner will be required to send a copy of their passport or identification to the Sponsor to confirm their age and identity.”

District Attorney Scott McKee strongly warns against ever mailing or providing anyone with a copy of your passport, or any other form of identification through the mail or email.

“This appears to be an attempt to collect personal identification information which could easily be used for identity theft purposes.”

In another scam that recently hit Henderson County, a check is sent to a person telling them that they have been selected to be a mystery shopper.

There are many reasons the scam appears to be believable. The official-looking letter you receive often has telephone contact numbers and company names that may mirror the name of a real company.

The check inside—which can be for as much as $5,000—often looks official as well, and may bear the name of real banks or credit unions.

Sometimes the letter says that as part of the paid training assignment, you’ll spend around $100 of the cashier’s check at familiar major retail and restaurant chains—such as K-Mart, Sears, Lowe’s, Best Buy, J.C. Penney or Burger King—in order to evaluate the services received.

Though this adds an element of legitimacy, these companies are not affiliated with the scam.

The real problem arises when you’re told that your job will be to go to a specific money-wiring service (Western Union or MoneyGram, for example) or check-cashing outlet (such as Wal-Mart) and evaluate the business.

Before you do this, you are to deposit the check they sent into your bank account. Then you are to immediately wire a large portion of that money—several thousand dollars—to a given location.

Without your knowledge, the check you deposited was counterfeit, so it’s not going to clear.

The scam works by taking advantage of the time-delay between when the cashier’s check is deposited, and when the bank discovers that the check is counterfeit. That could be several days or even weeks.

But by the time the check bounces, the money you wired is already in the hands of the thief, and you’re stuck owing the bank a huge amount of money.

As consumers are defrauded of millions of dollars each year, the District Attorney’s office would like to provide Henderson County citizens with the following tips so they do not find themselves the victim of a mail fraud scheme:

· If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

· Be skeptical of any correspondence offering a large sum of money in exchange for a fee or specific personal information, such as a bank account number or your Social Security number.

· Question the validity of any correspondence containing spelling or grammatical errors.

· Be leery of checks received from companies you do not do business with. The check is most likely fraudulent. Never cash a check if you do not know why you have received it.

· If the name of a well known company is noted on the correspondence received, contact the company to verify the legitimacy of the letter.

· Be wary of sweepstakes or contests that require you to send money to a P.O. Box, a drop-box or an overseas address before you can claim your prize.

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