Police warn about confidence schemes
Baltimore police are urging city residents to be wary of a series of confidence schemes that have bilked several people out of thousands of dollars and are leading some to be “duped” into participating in illegal enterprises.
Detectives Robert Elkner and Sarah Connelly of the fraud unit described several variations of the scheme and urged people to not divulge personal information such as bank account and social security numbers and dates of birth on the Internet.
One scheme is called “re-mailing,” in which unsuspecting victims become “middlemen” in a shipping enterprise. They answer ads on the Internet and agree to receive packages at home, and then repackage them and send them overseas.
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The victims pay shipping and receiving costs, and sometimes up-front fees, out of their own pocket, in exchange for checks up to $25,000. Elkner said the checks turn out to be fake, but the victims get penalized by the banks when they bounce. In addition, police said the items being shipped typically involve stolen electronic equipment.
“They get caught up being part of a criminal enterprise and don’t even know it,” Elkner said.
Another variant is an email saying you’ve won a contest. The sender typically requests that the “winner” send a check for $1,500 or some other amount and in return will get their reward, between $15,000 and $25,000. The victim also has to fill out a detailed form containing personal information such as social security numbers and marital status.
Connelly said people who fall for this came get victimized twice. They lose the money they sent while either never receiving their promised winnings or getting a check drawn on a fake bank. And they’ve given up enough information to become victims of identity theft.
The detectives said one Baltimore woman as recently as Wednesday filed a complaint involving a fake contest. She had been directed to send $1,500 to an address in Turkey.
