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Authorities offer warnings on scams
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Published: November 18, 2008
The e-mail reads "your account has been compromised" and gives instructions on how to fix it.
Or the e-mail offers a quick way to make a few bucks by working at home. Or a relative in Nigeria died and the sender needs help in getting a large sum of money out of the country.
The problem is, said Detective Sgt. Allen Sipes of the Iredell County Sheriff's Office White Collar Crime Unit, these and other similar e-mails are scams.
A work-at-home e-mail using a legitimate business name cost a local woman $6,000, Sipes said.
Those e-mails with the names of banks or other financial institutions are just a scheme to get information, which the scammers can use to drain a bank account, Statesville Police Department Interim Chief Tom Anderson said.
Both Sipes and Anderson said they fear the upcoming holiday season and the economic recession will make these scams more attractive to desperate people.
"People are losing their jobs and are more eager to try to make money in some fashion," Sipes said. "People may be more gullible, and it seems easy, and it is for a day or two. In reality, you're just giving your money to somebody else."
Sipes said the work-at-home schemes tend to involve the company asking a person to cash checks and send about 90 percent back to the company. It's only days or weeks later that the checks bounce and the person who cashed them is left holding the bag.
"The burden is on your shoulders to be responsible," Sipes said.
Promises of large winnings through lotteries are among scam detectives see frequently, Sipes said.
"I've got a whole drawer of those," he said.
Others involve buying an item through an Internet site, and the seller wants to send a check for more than the purchase price and asks the extra be returned.
Like other schemes, the check is bogus, but looks real and may even have a real routing number from a bank.
Sipes and Anderson said these kind of cases are nearly impossible to solve because the scams often trace back to foreign countries over which the United States has no jurisdiction.
Sipes said he can spend hours on the phone just trying to run down a starting point for some of these scams, most of which cannot be traced.
Anderson said most also are itinerant operations — staying at one spot just a few days or a week before moving on to another.
Phone numbers, Sipes said, can look legitimate with United States area codes, but are routed to lines in either Canada or Nigeria or other foreign entities.
Sipes said that's why people who fall for these scams will likely never see their money again.
"That's what's hard trying to explain to a victim," he said.
But Internet scams aren't the only ways in which criminals will try to find an advantage.
Lt. Andy Poteat said recently, in two cases, a couple, posing as city or county employees, successfully stole money.
He said the couple approached two homeowners in the Amity Hill Road community last week. One drew the homeowner outside by claiming the need to look for places to put wiring or pipes.
The other party went inside and took small items that could be easily concealed, such as jewelry.
Anderson said a similar case occurred last summer in the city. He said city or county workers or those from utilities will carry identification.
"Ask to see their credentials," Anderson said. "If you're still not comfortable, give us a call."
He said fall is also a prime target time for bands of travelers who offer to make home repairs.
"They appear unsolicited and unprompted," Anderson said.
The work is often not necessary, overpriced and shabbily done.
"Legitimate businesses do not solicit people in this manner," he said.
Anderson and Sipes said the best way to avoid becoming a victim is to remember the expression, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
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Common e-mail scams involve:
+ Promise to make large sums of money working from home processing checks;
+ Lottery proceeds; and
+ Offers by foreign citizens to share inheritance
Other scams:
+ Unsolicited offers to make repairs to your home;
+ People posing as county or city employees in an attempt to gain access to valuables inside your home.
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