Crime Stopper Alert

The Sheriff’s Office has been experiencing a marked increase in reports concerning different types of scams being attempted. Most have been received directly in the mail, others over the telephone. Most of these are unsolicited contacts to the targeted victim. In the mail, citizens have received notices or letters that they have unclaimed funds in some sort of clearinghouse, or won some sort of International Lottery. These scams have a check or money order sent to the victim. The victim is asked to cash the check and send an administrative fee back to the sender in order to claim their funds. The check or money order is later found to be fraudulent, but only after the victim has cashed it and sent the administration fee. In many of these cases the bank requires the victim to reimburse the bank. The letters take on many different forms, constantly changing, but the theme is the same; get a victim to cash a check or money order and send the money back to the sender. Scams over the telephone involve the victim being asked for their bank account numbers so the clearinghouse can deposit the money. If an account number is given, the perpetrators merely use this to withdraw funds from their account. These scams are run out of foreign countries. Some have post office boxes in the U.S. that actually are forwarded to the foreign country, but most are sent directly to Canada or the United Kingdom. Citizens should be aware that there is no International Lottery that U.S. citizens can legally participate in. If anyone receives these letters or solicitations, they are encouraged to file a complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at www.usps.com/postalinspectors click on the link for Mail Fraud or call them at 412-359-7900. Telephone solicitation complaints can be made with the Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office at 419-738-2147.

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