Contact 13 Consumer Alert
Valley man warns others of fraudulent check hitting mailboxes
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) - Despite the economy many people are willing to help others get by. But one Valley man knew one check he got in the mail was just too good to be true.
"I think she was a pretty smooth scammer and she was trying to get me to trust her," said Randy Lewis.
Randy says a woman who emailed him was using a sob story to reel him in. He says the woman wrote she wanted to help the less fortunate by giving them some cash.
"I'm an elderly handicapped lady you know who is a little well off but in my younger days I was a very shrewd business woman," Randy explained about what the woman wrote.
"If I wanted to earn someone's trust first I would want to know more about you and your situation in life are you wealthy or are you poor but there was no question, no things like that," said Randy.
But he wrote back and a few days later the woman said she would mail a cashier's check to him.
"[It was for] a little over $7,800," explained Randy.
The woman gave him specific instructions to keep $800 for himself then go to a Western Union and wire the rest to someone in the Philippines.
"Why would you send some money to someone then have them send it to a charity," said Randy.
Sure enough, a couple of days later Randy got a check in the mail and that's when he called Channel 13.
"Watching your news in the past made me aware of such things going on how frequent they are and how smooth some of these people really are," said Randy.
We called Navy Federal Credit Union whose name is on the check. They say the check is fraudulent and they know about this scam.
"$7,800 would do a lot for my life, it surely would," said Randy.
So here's the Contact 13 bottom line. The Federal Trade Commission's web site reminds people never to wire money to someone you don't know. They also say you should never deposit a check from someone you don't know and then wire the money elsewhere. That's what the scammer in this story was trying to get Randy to do.
If you have something you would like us to look into send an email to 13investigates@ktnv.com be sure to include your phone number.
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