Advance Fee Scam pops out from mailboxes in Williamson County
Photo by: Editor B
Williamson County in Southern Illinois is warning residents to beware of an advance fee scam that visits them via ordinary mail. County Sheriff Tom Cundiff reported several residents complaining of receiving a letter along with a check worth thousands of dollars claiming they just won a sweepstake.
The letter informed recipients the total prize money was worth $5 million. This money was, however, to be shared between twenty winners. Each winner was thus entitled to get $250,000.
The check was help for the winner to payout local expenses like taxes which might crop up as a result of the winnings. (How thoughtful!……??????)
The recipient is asked to cash the check, use most of the money to pay for incidentals, and send the rest back to the fraudsters. They are specifically asked to use wire transfer services like Money Gram and Western Union to send back the money.
For regulars, this is a dead giveaway to the scam. Such scams are run by folks always on the run. Wire transfer allows them to withdraw the wired money from any place they feel like.
As for the check, after it is deposited and the victim wires part of it to the fraudsters, the bank turns around and informs victims that it is a fake. It then asks victims to make up to the bank, the money they wired across.
Also, there would be no relief for victims; there is no way the scammers can be brought to book as they usually dangle their hooks from across the border.
Source: TheSouthern.com
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