OSCEOLA MILLS – The Decatur Township Police Department reported two scams that recently occurred.
According to police an Osceola Mills woman advertised an item on an internet site and received a response from a prospective buyer. A price was agreed on and the buyer sent the woman a cashier’s check for $2,500 more than the sale price and asked the seller to cash the check then send the balance to a shipping company who would make arrangements to pick up the item.
The seller felt uncomfortable with the transaction and cancelled it.
Police said this incident has all of the indicators of being a scam. According to police this scam has been used before and the buyer turns out to be a fraud and the victim ends up being indebted to a local bank for the amount of the fraudulent check.
In the second case police said an Osceola Mills woman was the victim of fraud after she received a phone call stating that she had won a large sum of money from Bank of America. She was advised to send a processing fee via Western Union so she could claim her winnings.
The woman never received her winnings. When police investigated it turned out the phone calls originated from Jamaica.
Police advise the public to never give out information over the phone or internet to anyone you are unfamiliar with, and further, to never send money to anyone that you do not know.
As always, police ask that you use common sense when making transactions with someone you don’t know. If something is too good to be true, it probably is.