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Lottery scams get craftier
David Lazarus
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TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Bill Radke: If you get a letter telling you, "You won the lottery," I hope that somewhere amid your rejoicing, there is skepticism. Lottery scams are not new, but thanks to technology they are getting craftier. Here with a recent example is Los Angeles Times business columnist David Lazarus. Hello, David.
David Lazarus: Good morning.
Radke: So how does this fancy scam work?
Lazarus: I looked at a case the other day where a woman in Southern California receives a letter from a lottery company saying, "Congratulations, you have just been pulled from a computer base and you are the lucky winner of a portion of $4 million," and there is a check included with the letter for $3,875. And here's one of the beautiful things: the check, for all intents and purposes, looks real. It's got routing numbers. It's the real deal, or so you think.
Radke: OK. So you've got a real-looking checking. Where does the scam come?
Lazarus: The scam comes because the letter says this check for, in this case nearly $4,000, is merely a down payment on the $125,000 that's coming your way. However, the letter explains that because of the insurance bond policy coverage, which is of course silly talk, but nobody knows that, you're going to have to send back -- via Western Union -- a little bit of money to cover some of the taxes. And this is getting a little bamboozling. The beauty of the scam, though, is they've sent you a check for $3,800 or so, they say, you don't have to wire all that back, just send back $2,800 and you'll still have about $1,000 in the bank, so clearly you're coming out ahead. Ah! The problem is because the check is a fake -- but you will not know it after you deposit it, you're going to have to wait until it clears or rather gets turned down by the bank that issued it -- you're going to be sending money to the scammers from your own account. That's the scam.
Radke: So the old advice holds: Don't send money.
Lazarus: The old advice holds: No free lunch. If you get a check in the mail that you are not expecting or that you do not know where it's coming from, walk away. Do not put it into your account. If you have questions, take it to your bank, ask them. And if you do deposit it into your account, for god's sakes, do not wire money to anybody until you see whether the check clears.
Radke: L.A. Times business columnist David Lazarus. I'm going to remember that, thank you.
Lazarus: Yes, do. Thanks.
my father just recently got a call stating he won 2.5 million all he had to do was give 800.00 to " 2 US Marshals,and 1 FBI Agent who would be delivering via a brinks truck" well as i was the one who called the phone number back saying i was my fathers POA that they had to deal with me only i began asking questions ex: Company, Address, Zip at one point they put me on hold and hung up on ,but this person called back now they were telling me they are from the FTC = Federal trade Commision (NOT) they had a brink truck on rt to my fathers home with the package and his winnings 2 Marshals and 1 FBI agent were going to escort him to the bank well i asked this person James Hubbard for the names of the Marshals and agent he said he will call me back which he did and i was giving the 3 names i then told him i would get back to him after i called the FBI to verify and i also called the FTC how never heard of this BTW the prize was suppose to be from MEGA BOX please do not be scammed by these low lifes ask questions if you are elderly have a family member make the calls believe me they hated talking to me once they asked where my father was and i had to tell them again they had to deal with me ONLY
This is a twist on the classic Craigslist scam. Buyer sends seller a phony cashier's check for way more than the purchase price "to cover handling", promises his agent will come by to pick up the goods and asks for remaining funds to be wired.
Trouble is it takes a few days for the bank to discover the check's a fake, but the wire was real.
First time I ever sold something on Craigslist I had just finished reading the warning about such scams. Just then a scammer e-mailed me using almost exactly the same text as quoted in the craigslist warning.
