Published: June 21, 2009 04:42 am      

Fake Check Task Force

Consumers may be more vulnerable now than ever to scams

FAIRMONT — With the help of the state attorney general’s office and other agencies, the Consumer Federation of America’s Fake Check Task Force is working to keep scams from hurting consumers.

Derek Walker, chief investigator for West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw, said the office’s Consumer Protection Division has been working with the task force for the past year. The CFA and the group members have developed training materials to try to educate those who come in contact with fake check scams on a daily basis.

“Basically it’s a collaborative learning experience,” Walker said.

The CFA, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit association of consumer organizations that focuses on research, education and advocacy. Susan Grant, director of consumer protection, said the CFA has approximately 300 member organizations.

Although there had been some public education efforts on fake check scams in the past, more needed to be done, Grant said. So she gathered a group of people representing state agencies, consumer organizations, banks, trade associations, money transfer services and other companies to form the Fake Check Task Force in May of last year.

The group created training resources that target consumer protection agencies, law enforcement agencies and financial institutions. These materials became available in May 2009, and a multimedia public awareness campaign for consumers was also launched at that time, Grant said.

To help with the planning, the CFA commissioned a telephone survey of consumers. She said the organization found that 30 percent of adults in the United States had been approached by fake check scamsters. The most common forms of these scams were sweepstakes or lotteries, grants and work-at-home variations.

Of the people who had been approached, 2 percent had actually sent the money that was requested. That translates into 1.3 million people with an average loss of about $3,000 to $4,000 a person, Grant said.

Through involvement with the CFA Fake Check Task Force, the attorney general’s office can become aware of some of the newer scams as they evolve and send out press releases to inform consumers, Walker said.

He said fake check scams seem to be growing, especially during the current economic situation.

“We kind of noticed that when a lot of the economic turmoil hit, people became desperate for a way to make ends meet,” Walker said. “They kind of put what their common sense may be telling them on the back-burner because they are desperate with the tough economic times that we have been going through.”

When people get checks in the mail claiming they are lottery winners, they’ll find that “the back story normally has some holes in it,” he said.

In these scams, consumers get letters instructing them to call an 800 telephone number in order to have their “winnings” deposited directly into their bank accounts, Walker said. The crook proceeds to gather personal information, which could lead to identity theft in the future, and tells the victim to cash the check and then go to Western Union or MoneyGram to wire a certain amount of money.

It can take up to 14 days for the check to actually bounce, and that’s when the consumer gets notice that the award was fake.

“The biggest thing is if they go to their bank and they cash one of these fake checks, nine times out of 10 the consumer is going to be left 100 percent responsible for the fake check,” he said.

Walker encouraged consumers to pay attention to the old rule, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” A person won’t just receive a check in the mail for the lottery or a sweepstake if he or she didn’t actually enter any contest.

“Never wire money to a stranger ... for any purpose,” he said. “There’s legitimate uses for the money transfer services, but just sending money off to a stranger ... is always a bad idea.”

For the work-at-home scams, Grant advised people to be wary of any claims that they can make a lot of money working at home. Working at home is perhaps a way to supplement income, but not a way to make thousands of dollars a week, she said. Plus, no legitimate employer would ask an employee to pay money to work at home.

“People aren’t contacted unexpectedly telling them that they are entitled to free money from the government or foundations,” she said of the grant scams. “Nor are there charges to get grants.”

People should also watch out for mystery shopping scams, which are popular right now, Grant said.

The fake checks and money orders look very realistic, and it can take awhile for the counterfeiting to be caught, she said.

“The way that you can tell that it’s a scam is by somebody sending you a check or money order and asking to you to send some money somewhere in return,” she said. “Regardless of the story they tell you, it’s a scam.”

Grant said people may be more vulnerable now than ever to promises that they’ve won money or that they can easily earn money. But they should always listen to their inner voice and seek advice from a trusted source of information if they are unsure whether something is legitimate.

“People should really follow the hunches that they have that something might not be quite right,” she said. “If they have any questions about it at all, they should check it out.

“Chances of recovering the money are very slim. That’s why it’s so important to avoid being taken by these scams to begin with.”

For more information, visit FakeChecks.org, which is operated by the National Consumers League, or the attorney general’s Web site at www.wvago.gov.

E-mail Jessica Legge at jlegge@timeswv.com.