Scamming the scammers is a hassle

This article is my first attempt at writing for publication in the local newspaper as a guest columnist. It was published in the October 15, 2011 Mansfield News Journal, Mansfield, OH as an Opinion Shaper article. The Opinion Shaper team consisted of 13 volunteers who each submitted an article for publication every three months for one year.

It's not often you get a phone call saying you have won a large sum of money, but for many peo­ple it is all too often, with regret­table results.

Recently I got: such a call, and a female voice congratulated me for winning $3 million. I asked what I should do next, and the reply was to send $750 for the cost of expediting the de­livery. I told her to just deduct the $750 and send me the rest. She said, "OK," and hung up. I didn't hear from her again.

During the next two weeks, I received several similar calls from different people. One was from a David Foster who in­formed me that he was from (a well-known company) and that I won $1.5 million and a Mercedes Benz.

"How do you like that?" he added. I told him it would be OK if I had the check in my hand or, better yet, the money in the bank, He agreed, but told me that all I had to do was send him $100 to defray expenses of the delivery.

I had already researched some of the scam methods and I told him that we should not have to pay anything for a sweep­stakes win. He replied that the rules have changed and ex­plained a few points.

"Will you cooperate?"

"No," I replied, and hung up.

I called security at that com­pany and they informed me that they do not contact a win­ner by phone.

But there was one call I was curious enough to follow through. The call came from a John Anderson, and he informed me that I won $5 million and con­gratulated me, saying that I defi­nitely did win and that I would receive the money. All I would have to do was send them $385 to cover expenses. This time I played along, but I told him I did­n't have that kind of money. He then asked me if I had any bank credit cards and, since it was not exactly personal information, I replied that I had MasterCard and Visa. He asked what the credit limit was on the cards and I replied, "$12,000 on one of them." He said he would send me a check for $12,000 and I could pay the $385 out of that, and he admonished me to "spend the money wisely."

The next day I got a phone call from another man with a heavy accent who asked me if I got the check yet. I told him it was only a day later—mail does­n't travel that fast. He said he would call the next day.

The next day or so he called again, still no check. He sug­gested I could pay the $385 out of my credit card, or take a loan out using my car as collateral. I told him I don't do things that way. Another call asked what bank I used. To maintain the sense of innocent participation I told him the name of a bank - but not my bank.

A few days later I got a call again, and again I told him I did not receive a check. He then told me he would send it, what is my address? This time I waived the admonition to not give out per­sonal information. I gave him my address; I wanted the evidence.

Meanwhile, I called the Mans­field Police Department and talked to one of the detectives who gave me the 411 on the nu­merous scam attempts and suc­cesses that pervade our society.

A couple days later I got the check, dated and signed by the name printed on the check, made out to my name, but the rest was blank.

When the caller called again I informed him that the amount on the check was blank. He told me that they did not yet know how much the government would charge for the transaction so they left it blank - he would let me know the amount. He told me to deposit the check for $9,500. That was where it became really confusing and I don't remember what he said next, except he did end with, "Are you going to the bank now?" I told him I was working on it.

I was not going to cash or de­posit any check of that sort. The lesson I got from the police de­partment was that the check may be cashable, but the check funds can get shanghaied to who knows where, and the money you received will have to be given back to the bank, which will not have sympathy for your situation.

I took the check to the police, along with pertinent information. In this case, the check was proved to be a fraud early on. The checking account had been closed, the owner of the account had died and his wife was in a nursing home. I got a phone call a couple weeks later that was ap­parently from the same source. I replied that the check was a fraud and hung up.

It was a hassle to follow through with what I knew was a fraud, and it gave me a few headaches. I got my evidence, but it was filed with the police department among thousands of other similar attempted, or suc­cessful fraud cases.

Incidentally, my phone num­ber is on the National Do Not Call Registry. Why am I still get­ting unwanted calls?