|
Sweepstakes fraud could steal thousands: National check scam has come to Howard County
Jul 31, 2009 (Kokomo Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Cleaning supply companies do not issue sweepstakes awards.
It is something several Howard County residents have wanted to believe, but it is a scam, according to the Howard County Sheriff Department.
Anyone who receives a sweepstakes check for $4,785, which cleaning chemicals manufacturer Genlabs seemingly issued, needs to discard it before scammers steal thousands of dollars from their personal bank accounts, the sheriff department warned Thursday. The company is legitimate, but the checks are not.
Several Howard County residents reported to the sheriff department that they received one of the fraudulent checks in the mail. A letter with the check tells the recipient to transfer $2,875 via Western Union Financial Services Inc. to a tax agent to pay off taxes.
The letters, which originate from a "Fidelity Financial Links Inc." in Toronto, state that once the wired money pays off the taxes, the recipient could win up to $100,000.
A phone number on the letter leads callers to a message stating they were selected at random because they had shopped at one of several local retailers.
Once victims wire the money, it is drained from their bank accounts forever.
"It's all a great big scam perpetrated during hard economic times when folks are vulnerable," said Howard County Sheriff Marshall Talbert in a press statement.
No one locally had reported losing money to the scam, according to Talbert's statement.
"Citizens came into our office to see if this was legitimate," Talbert stated. "They want to believe it's real, but it's not."
The checks say they are issued from Genlabs, which is based in Chino, Calif., because the scammers appear to have stolen and washed a legitimate check the business issued, said the company's controller, Joyce Nicola.
This was the third time in 18 months the scam has targeted Genlabs, which manufactures and packages small amounts of chemicals for private businesses. The company has received reports of the scam from around the U.S., Nicola said.
"We mail out 100 checks weekly to vendors for payment of services," she said. "[The scammers] take our checks and wash them. Some are our actual checks for payments that the name has been changed. I don't know how they do it."
Nicola said she used the Internet to trace the phone number on the letters to a cell phone listed in Toronto.
In the two previous scams, one originated from Canada and the other from the Bahamas.
Genlabs does not have any affiliates or connections in Toronto, Nicola said, which means someone from Chino probably stole the original check and sent it to someone in Canada.
The company has contacted the Chino Police Department and the FBI about the scam.
"The Chino Police Department is aware of it," Nicola said.
--Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at (765) 454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.
To see more of the Kokomo Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.kokomotribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, Kokomo Tribune, Ind.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back Hosted VoIP Global Community's Homepage ]
|
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Activate Email 
TMCnet LOGIN
