NORWICH – New York State Police are warning of a developing mail scam that has already victimized a number of local residents.
Sgt. Elizabeth R. Wonka reported Tuesday that area residents had been filing complaints with the troopers over a letter scam involving false international lottery checks being mailed to victims.
Wonka offered an example taken from a recently-seized letter.
The scam often claims that you need to cash this check for a certain amount, let’s say $5,000. The letter will say that you need to pay the non-resident government service tax before you can collect the rest of your Canadian lottery winnings, which is always a larger amount, $400,000 or whatever it might be. The letter requests that you cash the advanced check for $5,000 and mail a large portion of it to a third party so they can pay the tax and send you your winnings.
“They will say you have won, but you must send them money for the full earnings,” Wonka said.
Many banks will cash the checks, especially for good faith customers. The winnings are obviously never received and the check bounces, making the victim responsible for the amount.
“If you need to send them money to collect your winnings, it is fraud, flat out,” Wonka said.
Police said losses are often stuck with the individual, not the bank, unlike a credit card fraud.
Police also said victims of the crime will sometimes cash the checks aware of a possible scheme in hopes of benefiting from the fraud because several of the scams allowed victims to keep a portion of the check.
Wonka said police face a number of challenges in investigating such crimes because they often cross state and international lines.
“Typically a key component in these types of scams are multiple addresses in several different states or countries,” she explained.
“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” the trooper said.