Every day your BBB of Southwest Missouri receives calls from area consumers excited that they have potentially won a large amount of money. Unfortunately, what they find themselves in the middle of is a scam. We are calling on the consumers of southwest Missouri to help us raise awareness of this scam by sending us these fake checks to get them off the streets.
Here’s one example: Consumers receive a letter with an accompanying check of up to $5,000 saying their names had been randomly selected to receive a large amount of winnings. All they have to do is call their representative listed in the letter for further instructions. When called, these “winners” are instructed to deposit the checks in their bank accounts then they are instructed money gram or wire transfer a large portion of the check they received to help pay for supposed fees or taxes. That’s where the scam comes in.
If there is a supposed winning via lottery, at no time should the recipient have to pay for anything.
For instance, if you were to win the Missouri Lottery, all taxes would be taken out
before you ever receive the money, not after. If the consumer cashed or deposited the check, it would have been returned in about 2 to 4 weeks as a fraudulent check. The consumer would then be held liable by the bank for the returned check as well as be out the money they wired to the scammers.
Your BBB is asking area individuals and businesses to send copies of the checks to the BBB to help raise awareness to this ring of scams and stop thousands of dollars worth of losses. Other BBBs are also taking part in this initiative. For example, in just one week, the BBB of Middle Tennessee has received more than $80,000 worth of these fake checks.
Please send your checks to us by mail at 430 S. Glenstone Springfield MO 65802 or by fax to 417-869-5544.
For more information call 417-862-4222. Together we can fight this scam and help keep southwest Missouri a great place to be.