news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Police are reminding residents to remain on high alert and use sound judgement following a recent increase in reports of mail and Internet scams in the Triad.

One of the major scams that is increasingly targeting elderly residents are lottery scams — where they will receive a letter and an authentic-looking check in the mail telling them they have won a lottery.

But to claim the prize — they have to deposit the check and wire funds back to the lottery company to cover the taxes or processing of the prize, police say.

Turns out, the check is counterfeit — and the money that is wired is long gone to another country and the bank is forced to charge the account holder a fee for a bad check.

“The resident will usually get contacted by phone (by the scammers) and they’ll say they need more money to cover the loss, saying an employee embezzled the money or some other excuse,” said Detective R.M. Steed of the Greensboro Police Department.

“The scammers are really good at it. (The resident) will get into the scam giving up a certain amount of money and then they’ll spend more trying to rescue the money they’ve already given.”

Steed said the majority of the time, detectives will be notified about the scam well after the fact by the victim’s children after the victim has spent thousands.

“We have seen as much as $50,000 lost by one person,” Steed said.

“The (scammers) are sending out mass mailings that look pretty refined and you have to use your common sense when you get it.”

Making things more difficult is that many of the lottery scams are based out of Canada, the Caribbean Islands or Africa — making it nearly impossible for detectives in the United States to bring charges or recoup the lost money.

“One of our detectives called the number for one of the lottery companies in Costa Rica and got a good cussing out from the guy on the other line saying ‘you’ll never catch us,” Steed said.

Bottom line, Steed says is that you can’t win a lottery you don’t play — tear or shred the mailings and the checks and dispose of them.

Another scam on the rise are IRS phishing scams, where residents will get an official-looking e-mail that appears to be from the Internal Revenue Service with its logo.

The e-mail will say the IRS has found the victim is eligible for additional refund money.

The victim will be asked to click on a link to enter their personal information to receive the money. Victims then send their personal information, which can be used for identity theft.

To avoid the scam, delete any e-mails that appear to be from the IRS and remember, the federal government typically does business via U.S. mail or in person.

“The only reason these scams work is because people get greedy beyond their means,” Steed said.

“Greed wins out and people fall for it.”

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com