The Abilene Better Business Bureau has hundred’s of examples of the forged counterfeit check scam. It is the one where you receive a check of several thousand dollars out of the blue. There is usually a cover letter attached from the El Gordo lottery, British or Irish lottery, Mega-Millions lottery etc. Sometimes the cover letter is from some place with a fancy sounding name like, Mutual Financial Services, or Global Financial Services.

The letter says you have won a lottery or a sweepstakes that you don’t remember entering, or can’t really be sure. They all claim you have won millions and the smaller enclosed check is to help you pay taxes due. The letter also wants you to keep quiet about your good fortune and to call them immediately. The actual letter and scenario vary, but the same red flags always remain.

The crooks always get around to telling you to cash the check and Western Union or Money Gram the cash to them, usually in Canada. Of course it’s all made-up, just like the bad check they sent you. If you cash the check you are spending / sending money you don’t really have. When the check bounces you’ll have to repay. The scammers spit these bad checks out of their computer printers by the hundreds.

Unfortunately a local company, Malcolm Supply, learned they are unwittingly involved in one of these cross boarder scams. A company called American Consumers Sweepstake Lottery is mailing checks of $4,900 to folks around the country. In order to lend a little bit of credibility to their scams the crook often use legitimate business names on the forged check. A possible victim in another state could check and find Malcolm Supply in Abilene, but might not know the check was written on an old account closed for three years. Another company LCS Production Research had their name and account number hijacked by long distance crooks.

Here are some tips from your Better Business Bureau:

• There is no legitimate reason for someone giving you money to ask you to wire money back to them
• Just because you can withdraw money from your bank after depositing the check doesn’t mean it’s good
• Fake checks look so real they fool even bank tellers. Some are counterfeit money orders or phony cashier’s checks
• Because bank customers are responsible for all checks they deposit, victims must repay the bank any money withdrawn against the bad check