Yet another scam has come to the attention of the Sheriff’s Office. Here is a scam alert to let everyone know what to watch out for. Once again, this scam prompts us to say “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
In this instance, a local person received a special “Priority Mail” envelope with a letter and a check inside. The check is for a significant amount - $2,275. The letter asks the receiving person to go to his/her bank and cash or deposit it immediately. The sender says he wants to know “how fast and efficient services are rendered in your Bank Cashing of our Cashier’s Check”. The sender wants a full report on the services rendered emailed to him right away.
The next instruction is to keep $250 of the money, and then go to the “nearest Moneypak outlet” and purchase four Green Dot Moneypak cards worth a total of $2,000. The remaining $25 is to cover fees on the Moneypak cards. The sender then asks the person to scratch off the silver panel on the card and email the 14 digit numbers from the cards to a particular email address. The sender also wants a full report on how well the store performed with customer service, number of employees at the store and how “neat” the store is.
The clincher: cashing/depositing the check and buying the Green Dot cards has to be done “today”, and must be kept confidential.
Although the check that is enclosed with the letter looks legitimate, it should be obvious to anyone receiving such an envelope and check that this is a scam. The end result will be the check turns out not to be legitimate, and you will be out the $2,000 from the Green Dot cards after the person on the other end of the email cashes them in, which they will do immediately.
If you receive such an offer, or any variation of this, throw it away. It is a scam. Fortunately, the person who received this envelope recognized it for what it was.