SIKESTON — Within the last two weeks, the Sikeston Department of Public Safety officials report two scams have been tried on residents in Sikeston. In both of these scams, the intended victims were contacted via the internet. In one scam the intended victim was being used as a middle person to broker an exchange of merchandise and guaranteed money if they would cash a check and send the largest portion of the money back to them via Western Union.
The second scam was where the intended victim was seeking employment over the internet and was contacted by a subject who even had him fill out an application for work. Then the possible employer asked the intended victim to cash some money grams the he would be sending him, and he could keep ten percent of the money received from cashing the checks. Fortunately, the intended victim here called public safety before trying to cash the checks.
In both cases the intended victims were sent checks through the mail and told to cash them and they could keep part of the proceeds to pay for their services. In both instances the checks that were sent to them were on fraudulent accounts. If the victims had cashed the checks they would have been responsible for the amount of the check, when the checks were returned to the respective bank or business. These types of schemes are typical of the Nigerian scams that are frequently used over the internet to unsuspecting people. In one of the Sikeston cases, the intended victim was given a phone number and when they called it had been disconnected. The scammer even supplied a mailing address that when the intended victim checked it over the internet, it did not exist.
In this particular case, the perpetrator even continued to call the intended victim at his home phone and asked if the checks had been cashed that they sent him, showing the audacity of the suspect. The suspect however continued to promise to send a phone number over the internet but refused to give one over the phone and usually the number on the caller ID is blocked. In this case, the intended victim also noted a foreign accent when talking with the scammer on the phone.
DPS officials just want to remind Sikeston and area residents to be aware of these scams and would offer these things to watch for:
• Anyone wanting to send you checks and requesting money back from you after you cash them.
• Be cautious when anyone contacts you stating that you are a lottery winner and you never entered a lottery.
• Anyone contacting you about being the broker in a deal where you are offered money, even though the part you play is very minimal.
In all of the cases described above, this would be people that you really don’t know and they have instigated the contact either over the internet or by telephone. The old saying, “you generally don’t get something for nothing” applies in all of these scams even though the scammer makes it sounds awfully good.
DPS wishes all the area residents a safe and Happy Holiday season, which will be more profitable for all, if they can avoid losing money to these who would take advantage of them.
