Post by kas on Sept 29, 2013 14:27:49 GMT -5
Windsor police warn of fraudsters with twisted sense of humour
blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/09/27/windsor-police-warn-of-fraudsters-with-twisted-sense-of-humour/
Trevor Wilhelm
Sep 27, 2013 - 7:39 PM EDT
Last Updated: Sep 27, 2013 - 9:37 PM EDT
Windsor police are warning job seekers about a group of scammers with a sense of irony, who list the address of a FBI headquarters as the location for their bogus company.
Const. Mike Akpata with the Windsor police financial crimes unit is investigating the scam, one of two new frauds targeting local unemployed people.
He called the FBI in Baltimore to let them know what was going on. A senior agent picked up the phone.
“I’m going to assume it was in an office of other agents because I hear could conversation in the background,” said Akpata. “You could hear them saying ‘Windsor police, where is that? The Canadians are calling, it’s not hockey season.’ Some laughter. Until I had them put the address in. In the background I could hear the entire agents room go quiet as they realized they were looking at the front door of their headquarters attached to this fraudulent website.”
The financial crime unit has received several complaints from Windsorites targeted by the scam through email.
“You’re told that you’ve received a job and it directs you to a website,” said Akpata. “The websites people are being directed to are well-crafted, well put together sites that talk about human resource policies, materials and everything else.”
The scammers offer non-existent administrative, work-from-home and data processing jobs. Akpata said the victims are sent jobs to do at home, such as data crunching on spreadsheets.
“Then they send you a cheque for the work that you’ve done,” said Akpata. “Say it’s a $2,000 cheque. You’re told to deposit the cheque into your account then send them back $500 to cover expenses or something else. What happens is a few weeks later, the $2,000 cheque bounces and you’ve sent $500 of your own money to the scammers. So the victim is out $2,500 of their own money.”
One fake company police have learned about is called Ivy Interiors. Akpata said the address scammers give for the company is a vacant building for rent or lease in Syracuse, N.Y.
“The phone number they give is a real phone number, but it’s going to a public servant’s phone in New York,” said Akpata. “So this individual is being distracted from doing what they have to do because hundreds of people, not only Windsorites but across North America, have been involved in this job scam and are calling.”
Another bogus firm is Meek Ceramics. The address they give on their website is 2598 Lord Baltimore Drive, in Baltimore. It’s the headquarters for the FBI field office.
“One of the ironies of this, to show that fraudsters enjoy the work they do, the address they use for their company is the FBI field office in Baltimore, Maryland,” said Akpata. “So we’ve made the FBI aware that their address is being used to perpetuate a scam.”
blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/09/27/windsor-police-warn-of-fraudsters-with-twisted-sense-of-humour/
Trevor Wilhelm
Sep 27, 2013 - 7:39 PM EDT
Last Updated: Sep 27, 2013 - 9:37 PM EDT
Windsor police are warning job seekers about a group of scammers with a sense of irony, who list the address of a FBI headquarters as the location for their bogus company.
Const. Mike Akpata with the Windsor police financial crimes unit is investigating the scam, one of two new frauds targeting local unemployed people.
He called the FBI in Baltimore to let them know what was going on. A senior agent picked up the phone.
“I’m going to assume it was in an office of other agents because I hear could conversation in the background,” said Akpata. “You could hear them saying ‘Windsor police, where is that? The Canadians are calling, it’s not hockey season.’ Some laughter. Until I had them put the address in. In the background I could hear the entire agents room go quiet as they realized they were looking at the front door of their headquarters attached to this fraudulent website.”
The financial crime unit has received several complaints from Windsorites targeted by the scam through email.
“You’re told that you’ve received a job and it directs you to a website,” said Akpata. “The websites people are being directed to are well-crafted, well put together sites that talk about human resource policies, materials and everything else.”
The scammers offer non-existent administrative, work-from-home and data processing jobs. Akpata said the victims are sent jobs to do at home, such as data crunching on spreadsheets.
“Then they send you a cheque for the work that you’ve done,” said Akpata. “Say it’s a $2,000 cheque. You’re told to deposit the cheque into your account then send them back $500 to cover expenses or something else. What happens is a few weeks later, the $2,000 cheque bounces and you’ve sent $500 of your own money to the scammers. So the victim is out $2,500 of their own money.”
One fake company police have learned about is called Ivy Interiors. Akpata said the address scammers give for the company is a vacant building for rent or lease in Syracuse, N.Y.
“The phone number they give is a real phone number, but it’s going to a public servant’s phone in New York,” said Akpata. “So this individual is being distracted from doing what they have to do because hundreds of people, not only Windsorites but across North America, have been involved in this job scam and are calling.”
Another bogus firm is Meek Ceramics. The address they give on their website is 2598 Lord Baltimore Drive, in Baltimore. It’s the headquarters for the FBI field office.
“One of the ironies of this, to show that fraudsters enjoy the work they do, the address they use for their company is the FBI field office in Baltimore, Maryland,” said Akpata. “So we’ve made the FBI aware that their address is being used to perpetuate a scam.”