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By JIM BARBIERI
“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
That’s the summary given Monday by Bluffton Detective Sergeant Steve Cale on the latest reported Internet scam here.
It’s another so-called “Nigerian Scam,’’ related Cale, who said high tech crime authorities had alluded to it as the “Nigerian 419 Scam.” (The Nigerian reference is to the hideaway “address” of some scam promoters in that African county.)
Sgt. Cale, with help of postal authorities and others, has warded off two known tries very recently but is eager to get the word out and block an epidemic.
He said the scheme gets started in Internet chat rooms where a couple of people start logging in to special rooms on various interests. After sort of a trust builds up in a few weeks, one of the parties says, “hey, I’ve got these postal money orders” and merely wants the other party to cash them.
In the opening case here there were $4,600 worth to be cashed in Bluffton, with the party here told to keep one for $600 while cashing the others totalling $4,000 at a bank here and then wiring back the $4,000 in two separate $2,000 wires.
Thus, the person here went into 1st Source Bank and cashed five money orders on Feb.18, taking $600 in cash and banking the $4,000.
However, related Det. Sgt. Cale, Tim Schwartz, the 1st Source manager in that bank’s alert action, called Bluffton Postmaster Chuck Millen, with the resulting bad news coming quickly. The so-called authentic-looking postal money orders are bogus. (The postal authorities have a very quick way of determining.)
Cale said 1st Source, of course, quickly negated the $4,000 in the account but wasn’t able to reclaim the $600 -- a matter handled by police so that no money was lost.
The Bluffton detective found out in follow-up with federal people about the labeling of these scams, which are very active now on the West Coast.
Then, Det. Sgt. Cale reported, a woman came to police headquarters Monday to report that her husband had received a packet with a UPS label. (The prior one here was in a U.S. Mail Express Mail packet.)
She wanted to know if the enclosed money orders were any good. Upon seeing similarities to the other interior contents, the Bluffton detective informed the woman of his strong belief this was phony.
The only variation in format this time was enclosure of an unsigned “thank you greeting card,’’ Det. Cale said.
The contents this time included five $950 U.S.Postal money orders by outward look, totalling $4,750 -- all quickly determined, however, to be bogus.
The officer said the woman still had to check with her husband to see if there was any other money order sent.
With these two situations having popped up in 10 days, Det. Cale was concerned there could be more coming here.He hoped it would not be like the Nigerian Scam of 1 1/2 years ago when the Bluffton Police became the drop-off point for much fashionable merchandise needing return to defrauded parties around the globe, thanks to a Bluffton person drawn into a high-tech scheme.
“Be careful who you talk with on the Internet,’’ appealed Det. Sgt. Cale, who added:
“And if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
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