Authorities: Be wary of fake award checks

From the Thursday, June, 12, 2008 edition of the Northwest Herald:

Authorities: Be wary of fake award checks
By DIANA SROKA - dsroka@nwherald.com

When Kathleen Porter opened her mail, she thought the letter claiming that she had won $57,000 and the enclosed check for nearly $4,000 might be real.

But the Ringwood woman’s intuition told her it probably wasn’t.

“Nothing good ever happens to me,” she joked.

After notifying authorities, Porter learned that she was the latest target of a mail scam, this one claiming to be an award from Del Monte Foods.

Porter said she also called Del Monte after receiving the letter last week.

“I grabbed a can of fruit cocktail and called Del Monte Foods,” she said.

The person who answered confirmed that the check was not real and added that the company had received a number of similar queries.

“It’s a very organized scam,” said Sgt. Michael Cisner, a detective with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department.

The mail scams often claim that residents won a significant amount of money, as Porter’s did, and that there are “administrative and processing” fees for receiving the money.

The recipient then is instructed to cash a check using their bank account information and then send the rest of the money to an address.

Cisner said the mail scams often are random and based on addresses from magazine subscriptions or mailing databases.

Cisner encouraged recipients of suspicious mail not to ignore or throw away the mail but to notify authorities to aid in tracking down the senders.

He also warned residents to be wary of mailings that do not appear to originate from one location – such as mailing addresses, phone numbers and company information that do not appear to be coming from the same geographic area.

As a rule of thumb, Cisner said, “Be very suspicious when somebody is trying to give you free money, especially when you didn’t fill out an entry form or enter a contest.”

McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Detective Sgt. Michael Cisner offered tips for recipients of suspicious mail:

• Check to see whether the phone number, address and location from which the materials were mailed match.

• Notify your municipality or your local CrimeStoppers.

• Notify the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department by calling 815-338-2144.

• Do not cash the check.