Police caution locals about yet another scam
By Kyra Hoggan
Police are warning residents about yet another scam making the rounds – this time, scammers are sending an email around saying they’re from the National Lottery with head offices in the UK, Sweden and Canada. The email has contact information and looks very official, according to Castlegar RCMP Cpl. Dan Pollock.
“They send a cheque for $1,950, saying it’s an advance on your $50,000 win,” he said. “It says it’s coming from Kudoo Mobile and Telus Corporation.
“They ask you to cash the cheque, then send them $1,650 via a Western Union money transfer to cover non-resident taxes and processing fees, at which point they’ll send you the balance of your winnings.”
Since most people withdraw the money for the transfer at the same time as they deposit the cheque, the $1,650 is long gone by the time the bank lets them know the original cheque did not clear.
Pollock said it’s another instance of, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” and counsels against ever sending money out-of-country without checking the recipient’s bonafides.
Also making the rounds again is a scam The Source has reported on before – a caller phones in the middle of the night, waking his victim and claiming to be their grandson, in jail and desperate for bail money.
They often target older people, in hopes they will a) have grandchildren with whom they don’t speak often enough to recognize their voices over the phone and b) be hard-of- hearing.
These scammers often do their homework, researching the names and histories of their victims prior to the call to lend credibility to their story.
For more information on this or other circulating cons, go to the RCMP’s “scams and fraud” page at http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/index-eng.htm
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