Police Again Warn Public Of

Internet Money Scams

 By Andrew Gorosko

Police again are warning the public to be wary of Internet money scams, in which swindlers seek to bilk unwitting people of money via email communications on the worldwide computer network.

Detective Sergeant Robert Tvardzik said January 26 that during the past two weeks police received two complaints from local residents about suspicious financial transactions that swindlers sought to strike with them via the Internet.

One of the two people who complained to police was in the midst of a financial transaction involving the sale of an automobile, but pulled out of the deal after growing suspicious about it, according to the detective.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it is,” Det Sgt Tvardzik said of the financial enticements that swindlers use to lure unsuspecting Internet users into money scams.

Last summer, police investigated a series of Internet scams originating in Nigeria. In such ruses, the perpetrators typically scan Internet listings of various items that are offered for sale, such as used automobiles. The swindlers then offer the seller some very favorable offer, typically providing much more money than requested to entice the seller into a deal.

But underlying the complex computer-based transaction is a counterfeit cashier’s check, which initially appears legitimate, but later is found to be bogus and that would result in a financial loss.

Town police sporadically receive complaints about such Internet scams, Det Sgt Tvardzik said. He warned that such scams, based on the sale of used motor vehicles, are now originating in many foreign countries, not just Nigeria.

Also, Det Sgt Tvardzik warned the public of various international lottery scams, in which email messages inform people that they have won a large cash lottery prize, but in order to collect the money the winners must forward a sum of cash. Such schemes are fraudulent, he said.

Det Sgt Tvardzik said the far-flung, worldwide reach of the Internet makes it very difficult for local police to enforce swindles perpetrated against residents by perpetrators in other countries.  

Last summer, police warned the public about various Internet money scams after a local resident received a suspicious cashier’s check from a Nigerian as the payment for an expensive garment that the resident had advertised for sale on the Internet. The unidentified resident then turned over the uncashed check to police for criminal investigation. That cashier’s check proved to be counterfeit.

Also, last summer, Nigerian swindlers sought to obtain US currency by having a counterfeit cashier’s check cashed by an unwitting local man in connection with the purchase of a used automobile, which the local man had advertised for sale on the Internet.

Nigerian check counterfeiters have perpetrated similar scams across the United States, according to police. The Nigerian criminals read countless email postings of items for sale in finding targets for their fraud, according to police.

“If it sounds to good to be true, it is too good to be true,” Police Chief Michael Kehoe has said of dubious financial transactions perpetrated by swindlers via the Internet.