Scams pick up speed during holiday season

Scam artists have been coming on strong in recent weeks, trying to bilk people of thousands of dollars using fake money orders and cashier’s checks, police and postal officials say.

A typical scam works like this: A person is contacted by mail from someone in another state or country with a message saying he or she is the recipient of a large amount of money – a government grant, perhaps, or a lottery-type prize.

To claim the money, all the person ostensibly must do is cash the money order or cashier’s check that’s arrived in the mail, then wire the person back a portion of the money as a refund.

If the scam goes as planned, the person sends the money from a personal bank account before discovering the check or money order they received is worthless.

“I think what the scammer is really thinking is that they’ll go ahead and send them money before they take and try to cash these,” Lawrence Postmaster Judy Raney said. “There will always be a few people who will do that, and that’s how they have their success.”

In another scenario, a local resident will offer something for sale in a classified ad or a Web site, for, say, $300. The buyer will offer to pay for it with a $1,000 money order, telling the seller to send back only $400 and to keep the change.

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said John Salanitro, a U.S. postal inspector in Overland Park.

In the past five months, Lawrence postal workers have spotted at least six instances of people trying to cash or deposit fake postal service money orders, Raney said. That’s compared with one in the previous five months, she said.

Postal money order safety features

What to watch for if you get a postal money order:
¢ When held to light, a watermark of Benjamin Franklin should appear on the left side.
¢ A dark line runs from top to bottom, with the words USPS repeated along the thread.
¢ There should be no discoloration around the dollar amounts, which might indicate the amount has been changed.
¢ Postal money orders cannot exceed $1,000.

Also, this week Lawrence Police warned that they’d seen at least two separate scams this month: one telling people they’d won a $12,500 government grant and needed to provide a checking account number and routing information to collect it; another that involved a mailing of a fake cashier’s check from TCF Bank.

There has been no actual loss reported from the recent police cases.

Using a dose of common sense is the best way to keep from being scammed, officials say. People selling things online or through the mail shouldn’t send the item until they receive payment, and if it’s a money order, check with the company or organization that printed it such as the post office to see whether it’s real.

Lawrence Police Sgt. Dan Ward added that if someone can’t cash a check or money order for themselves, you shouldn’t cash it for them.