Inspectors try to nab ‘prizes’ from abroad
Published: November 3, 2009
U.S. Postal Inspector Amanda McMurrey said from April 2007 to June 2008 inspectors at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport found more than 230,000 pieces of fraudulent check-related mail coming in from other countries.
The checks totaled $1.15 billion and were headed to people in the southern and southwestern
United States, including
Oklahoma.
"People are becoming more and more attuned to these scams, but as we head into the holiday season people may be more susceptible,” she said.
McMurrey said generally the envelope is from
Canada, and the writing is poor. Often it states the person won a lottery or a sweepstakes.
"Ask yourself, did I buy a ticket? If you didn’t, you didn’t win the lottery. It is illegal to play the lottery through the mail,” she said.
Though postal inspectors, customs and border inspectors try to seize the mail, it’s hard to track, McMurrey said.
"Once you wire transfer money, it’s gone,” she said.
If people think they have received a fraudulent check through the mail, they can forward it to postal inspectors free of charge by taking it to their post office, McMurrey said.
For more information, they can go to www.fakechecks.org.
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