SCAM ALERT: Beware of check delivered through the mail
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - The holidays are here, and everyone is busy, especially scammers. One of Local News 8's sales reps, Jay Dye, received a letter in the mail. In the letter was a check for $3,500 and some unique instructions.
"If it's too good to be true, chances are it is too good to be true," Dye said after seeing the offer.
"The letter basically says they want you to go and cash this check for $3,500, and you cash that, and then you go get all these gift cards for them. And send the gift cards back to them," Dye said.
"I did call the number in here to try to find stuff, but it was some foreign speaking person that couldn't communicate very well. So that was another indication that this was wrong," Dye said.
The check itself looks real enough, but with the proper focus, the truth is plain as day.
But if you don't have a high-powered camera, the experts at Westmark Credit Union say there are other ways to spot a scam.
"It was sent overnight mail. Which, a lot of the fraud checks are sent overnight mail,” said Aaron Brown. “And then it's noticed that the sending address is from Florida, but the check is out of the Bank of the West, and then they're living or doing business out of Indiana. So, three different areas not correlated at all."
Not everyone is so lucky.
According to FBI data, Idahoans have lost nearly $25 million to online scams by September.
Letters like this aren't the only way criminals are solidifying their spot on the naughty list this winter.
"As the seasons change, then your criminals are going to take advantage of that and tailor scams toward holiday things or what people are doing at the moment," Bonneville County Sheriff’s Crime Prevention Sgt. Bryan Lovell.
One scam the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office has seen this year is scammers posing as law enforcement.
"They want the person to believe that they're wanted or they're going to go to jail. They missed jury duty or something. And the only way to take care of it, one of the ways to take care of it would be to go and do something similar to this, where they'll take a card over the phone. But it has to be this kind of card," Lovell said.
Lovell advises that if anyone sends you a letter or calls you asking for money, you don't answer.
"I feel very good that I didn't fall for it. Because that would have taken a major bite at my budget at home," Dye said.
To help raise awareness of scams, Idaho’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, along with the Idaho Attorney General, will kick off its "Don't click December" campaign next month.
It’s a campaign that provides additional information on how to fight scammers.
To learn more about the campaign, click here.
