Fake check scams spread

Fake check scams spread
1.3 million Americans have fallen for this trick, according to CFA report
By Herb Weisbaum

updated 4:04 p.m. MT, Wed., May 27, 2009
To a con artist, cash is king. International scammers have developed a deviously clever way to trick people into sending them cash. The crooks mail out counterfeit checks or money orders and come up with a creative story to get their victims to wire back thousands of dollars.
According to a survey released Wednesday by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), nearly a third of all adult Americans have been approached with fake check scams and at least 1.3 million have fallen for it.
“They didn’t realize the pitch and the check were both phony until they wired off the money,” says Susan Grant, CFA’s director of consumer protection. She says the average victim gets taken for between $3,000 and $4,000.
Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League, puts the yearly loss at $20 to $60 billion a year. Her group runs the Web site fakechecks.org. “These are very persuasive scams that play on people’s vulnerability,” she says.
Here’s another reason so many people get burned by these counterfeit checks: They look legitimate. “They look so real your bank teller can’t always tell it’s a fake,” says Allison Southwick of the Better Business Bureau.
It starts with that bogus check or money orderWhy did you get that unexpected check or money order for thousands of dollars? Maybe you’ve won a contest. Maybe you hit the jackpot in a lottery. Maybe it’s payment for a work-at-home job. The storylines are varied, but the con always works the same way. You need to deposit the check and wire off most of the money right away.
“Once it’s wired it’s gone, gone, gone,” Greenberg says.
The CFA survey pinpoints one reason why this scam is so successful. Most people (59 percent of those responding) mistakenly believe that when you deposit a check or money order, your bank confirms that it is good before letting you withdraw the money. Forty percent believed they would not be held responsible if the check or money order turned out to be counterfeit. Wrong!
Many victims tell me they asked their bank if the check “cleared” before they wired the money and were told yes. Here’s the deal: When a bank says a check has cleared, it means you have access to those funds. It does not mean the check is good.
If the check bounces – which could take a few days or many weeks – you are responsible to repay your bank for any of the money you withdrew.
Bogus checks can be used for almost anything. All the bad guys need to do is concoct a story about why they sent you a sizeable check and why you need to cash it and wire them money.
Here are some of the most common fake check scam scenarios:
Prize and lottery scams“Congratulations!” the letter says. You’ve won a bundle of money in a contest, sweepstakes or foreign lottery – one you never entered. The letter looks official and comes with a check for thousands of dollars. You’re supposed to cash it and wire off the money to pay for outstanding fees or taxes. Don’t do it!
Reality check: You never have to pay to claim a prize. If you’re asked to wire off any money, it’s a scam. More on this scam.
Mystery shopper scam You answer an ad and are accepted as a secret shopper. Your first assignment is to evaluate the MoneyGram payment system at a local Wal-Mart store. The letter tells you to cash the enclosed check – usually between $2,500 and $5,000 – keep a couple of hundred dollars for yourself and use the MoneyGram service to wire off the rest. Don’t do it!
Reality check: Never accept a job that requires you to cash a check and wire money. No legitimate company would ever make you do this. More on this scam.
Overpayment purchase scamYou’re trying to sell something that’s fairly expensive, maybe a car or some furniture. So you place an ad in the newspaper or online. Before long you get an e-mail from an eager buyer who is willing to send you a check for more than the asking price. You’re supposed to wire the extra money to a mover, decorator, shipping company or some other non-existent entity. Don’t do it!
Reality check: You’re being set up. No legitimate business transaction involves a check for more than the asking price with the requirement that you wire the difference to some person or company. More on this scam.
Other victimsInnocent businesses are also hurt by the fake check scam. Many of these bogus checks use the name, address and bank account number of legitimate companies.
This increases the chance the teller will accept the check. Try to deposit a big check from the El Gordo Lottery and the teller might start asking questions. But a check from Bob’s Auto Supply doesn’t call attention to itself.
“Often businesses don’t even know their checks are being used in these scams until they get angry calls from people who want to know where their prize money is,” says the BBB’s Southwick tells me.
A few months ago, I warned you about con artists sending out counterfeit Publisher’s Clearinghouse prize notices – along with fake prize checks. Some of those fake checks listed the payer as Alpine Environmental Services of Stanwood, Wash.
When the bank realized Alpine’s account number had been stolen it locked up the company’s accounts. The company’s manager, Dennis Dutoit, tells me he could not pay any bills for three days until everything was straightened out. “It created a major mess,” he says.
The bottom lineIt’s not very hard to protect yourself from these fake check scams. In fact, Carmen Christopher, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission, was able to sum it up in one sentence. “If you get a check that requires you to wire money – don’t do it!”

Immigrant sentenced for fake ID sales in Idaho Falls.

Immigrant sentenced for fake ID sales

A 52-year-old illegal immigrant will spend 16 months in prison for four counts of document fraud.

By HEATHER WELLS hwells@postregister.com

An illegal immigrant from Mexico has been sentenced in federal court for selling phony identification cards in Idaho Falls and Blackfoot.

Ernesto Santillanes-Escoto, 52, will spend 16 months in federal prison for four counts of document fraud.

Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Santillanes-Escoto to be subjected to immigration-removal proceedings once he's released from prison.

A federal grand jury indicted Santillanes-Escoto in July, three months after the Idaho Falls Police Department began investigating him, Sgt. Phil Grimes said.

Shortly thereafter, undercover IFPD detectives and officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement bought several counterfeit Permanent Resident cards and fake Social Security Administration cards from Santillanes-Escoto.

He also was selling the counterfeit documents to several individuals in the area, who cooperated with authorities, Grimes said.

"We get a lot of fake IDs around here," Grimes said. "We were able to solve this case with a lot of evidence."

Santillanes-Escoto was arrested in September in Southern California and was brought to Idaho to face the charges.

Santillanes-Escoto pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced Friday.

It's a legal victory for illegal immigrants in Utah and across the United States.

Illegal immigrants score Supreme Court victory
May 5, 2009



SALT LAKE CITY -- It's a legal victory for illegal immigrants in Utah and across the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously in favor of a Mexican immigrant living in Illinois, saying prosecutors can't charge undocumented workers with aggravated ID theft unless they can prove intent to commit fraud.

That ruling comes in Flores-Figueroa v. United States on Monday. Proyecto Latino de Utah director Tony Yapias was thrilled with the 9-to-0 vote. "5-to-4, we would have said, you know, ‘Wow! … That's a good victory.' But 9-to-0, it's unprecedented," he said.

Yapias says prosecutors have used ID theft as the justification for several immigration raids, including here in Utah, but he says in many cases, the illegal immigrants have no idea they're buying a Social Security number that belongs to someone else.

"Here it is, the Supreme Court of the United States has just said unanimously that this law has been misused by prosecutors," Yapias said.

To him, there's a big difference between the kind of accidental ID theft that someone undocumented and looking for work might commit, compared to the kind committed by someone who rummages through garbage or mailboxes, knowingly stealing someone's identification with the intent to commit fraud.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman says this week's Supreme Court ruling should not affect the way he goes after illegal immigrants. "In anticipation of this very issue, we have been operating under this heightened or higher standard for the last two years. So, our prosecutions have been consistent with what the Supreme Court has now ruled on," he said.

Tolman says, as a result, it should not affect cases like the raid on the Swift meat packing plant. "If you take, for example, the Swift case, what we … we were one of the few that were concerned at the outset, that anyone we prosecute for identity theft needed to know that they were actually stealing the identity of someone," he said.

The Utah Attorney General's Office says it is subject to separate Utah laws rather than the federal statutes affected by the ruling.

LexisNexis warns of possible data breach

NEW YORK - The LexisNexis online information service is warning 32,000 people their personal information may have been improperly accessed in a credit card fraud scheme that postal officials say bilked hundreds.
New York-based LexisNexis says in a letter mailed Friday that former customers of the service may have viewed information including names, birth dates and Social Security numbers.
U.S. Postal Service officials have launched a criminal investigation and say 300 people in the databases of LexisNexis and a Santa Fe, N.M., company called Investigative Professionals were victims in the credit card fraud scheme. No suspects have been arrested.