Foreign Scams Showing Up In Local Mail

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY amccartney@tampatrib.com
Published: Aug 31, 2005

TAMPA - It used to be that you had to go to some foreign locale to have your wallet lightened by international thieves.

Now they don't have to catch you at a touristy bazaar. Now their scams come at you via letters or e-mail.

New variations of lottery and other scams purporting to offer millions in profit from Europe, Canada or Nigeria continue to snag U.S. victims.

One such scam appeared recently in Polk County and resulted in one woman being placed in handcuffs and nearly carted off to jail before authorities realized she wasn't knowingly trying to cash a forged check but had been duped.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent William Miles worked the case, which had a familiar resolution: none.

Because the scams originate overseas, there virtually is nothing U.S. authorities can do to stop them, Miles said.

The letters in the Polk County cases bore China postmarks, he said. The victims apparently had filled out a contest application at Lakeland Square Mall. The information they provided was sold - a common practice, Miles said - to the scammers in China.

Miles described how the scam works: A letter informs the recipients they won a foreign lottery, but to claim their prize, they have to pay taxes and fees. Because the company does not want them to have to pay the money out of pocket, it encloses a money order.

The receiver is supposed to cash the money order and wire the cash to the company, which then will send the lottery proceeds.

The money orders are bogus, and no money ever comes, Miles said.

Scams Common

Lottery scams are "pretty prevalent all over the country,'' Miles said.

Two things play into their effectiveness, say law enforcement experts: the quality of the counterfeit documents and greed.

The quality of the checks is very good,'' U.S. Secret Service Special Agent John Joyce said.

Counterfeiters have access to excellent computers, and that has improved the documents they produce.

Joyce said people aren't falling for scams that come from people claiming to want to share millions they acquired as government officials in Nigeria. But when people receive a check telling them they've won a sweepstakes or lottery, they sometimes don't think twice before trying to cash it.

He said the warning signs are in plain sight: grammatical mistakes, misspellings.

It has nothing to do with how educated you are, how well off you are,'' Joyce said. "It's about greed getting the best of you.''

Use Common Sense

This month, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist warned that some residents had been duped by a scam involving forgeries of checks produced by Arkansas.

According to a news release, people who have posted resumes online are receiving e-mail from a European computer company saying it needs help cashing checks totaling more than $5,000.

The person is asked to wire the money to the company. The scam seems to be based in Turkey, the attorney general's office said.

Because so many of the ruses are based outside the United States, it's incredibly difficult to arrest the culprits, Joyce said.

Other governments typically assist with the U.S. investigation, but by the time the crime is reported, the "owners have since moved on.''

The difficulty in successfully catching the international scammers means that people need to think hard before they try to cash any check they receive from a stranger, Joyce and Miles said.

Your Safety appears weekly. If you have an idea or comment, call reporters Valerie Kalfrin or Anthony McCartney at (813) 259-7616.

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