“Scammers Target College Students”

Fresno City College students have recently experience receiving letters, saying that they have won a sweepstakes or the lotto. Recently a student received a letter saying that they had won over a million dollars, only students did not remember submitting for a sweepstakes.
Counterfeit checks are being used in a growing number of fraudulent schemes, including a foreign lottery scams, check overpayment scams, Internet auction scams, and secret shoppers scams.
The student began to suspect that this might be a fraudulent check scam. The student who wanted to be unanimous did some investigating about the company, found out that the company was located in England. The student lived in California her entire life.
She called the Sheriff department and they informed her that there was nothing they could do because the student did not lose any money and their personal information was not taken, such as her social security number.
But they would help the student out by tracking down the person who sent out the checks to many of the FCC students. They found out that the checks were sent out randomly but were targeting mostly College students.
Many of the students have cashed the checks at their banks, the funds will be verified by the bank, but the check will not clear. Depending on your bank you might have to pay the funds back to your bank. There is a nothing you can do to recover the money.
These criminals are becoming very high tech and these were real checks with a wet seal on the back. The criminals had stolen the checks and made many more copies of them. They are targeting many of the senior citizens and the College students.
There is also an Internet scam that many should be aware of.
A scam artist replies to a classified ad or auction posting, offer to pay for the item with a check, and then comes up with a reason for writing the check for more than the purchase price. The scammer asks the seller to wire back the difference after depositing the check. The seller does it, and later, when the scammer’s check bounces, the seller is left liable for the entire amount.
Here’s how to avoid a counterfeit check scam:

? Throw away any offer that asks you to pay for a prize or a gift. If it ‘s free or a gift, you should not have to pay for it. Free is Free
? Resist the urge to enter foreign lotteries. It’s illegal to play a foreign lottery through the mail or the telephone, and most foreign lottery solicitations are phony.
? If you accept payment by check, ask for a check drawn on a local bank, or a bank with a local branch. That way, you can make a personal visit to make sure the check is valid. If that’s not possible, call the bank where the check was purchased, and ask if it is valid. Get the bank’s phone number from directory assistance or an internet site that you know and trust, not from the check or from the person who gave you the check.

If you think you’ve been targeted by a counterfeit check scam, report it to you local police department, if any agencies related to your college report it to your College Police department.