In the past year or so a very popular scam has hit the United States, targeting anyone who checks their mail. The scam involves a check so real that even banks do not catch on. The checks almost all have identical numbers on them, depending on the account they have been ‘drawn’ off of. The account numbers are real, the companies are real, and the money is even real, if you can get away with cleaning out your account before your bank freezes it.

Basically, if you take one of these checks to the bank, it will clear. But, you will be responsible for paying back any of it you spend and face possible jail time if you do not. The letters accompanying the check states you need to deposit the check into your bank account, let it clear, and then mail the company listed in the letter a handling or processing fee.

You would be amazed at how many people actually do this. So many that the Federal Trade Commission was astounded! (At least, the representative I spoke with). Most of the letters and checks are coming from individuals in Canada, so at this time the FTC has been having trouble pursuing the case.

Much like any scam, if you or a loved on gets a check in the mail with a letter asking you to deposit it and send back a small processing fee, get in contact with your postmaster. Do not, under any circumstances, deposit it into your account!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Arts and Crafts, Finance, Holidays, Smart Buying, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.