Crime Prevention Tips - Scam Prevention Tips
This is a tale of two peoples. The first group lives in the land of Fantasy. The second group lives in the land of Reality. Both groups look normal but the folks in Fantasy reveal themselves when they make poor choices that seem fairly obvious to the folks in Reality.
There are many people in the land of Fantasy, and it has an unprecedented growth rate despite repeated warnings from those in Reality. Those who leave Fantasy, do so usually after they have been beaten up pretty bad through their poor choices. The beatings only happen after those in Fantasy make a choice and they are unwilling to see the real consequences. They are usually blinded by the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that is a permanent fixture in Fantasyland. Some tend to remain in Fantasy, taking beating after beating, and still do not learn to make better choices. Most people are born into the land of Reality, but leave town early in their young lives through exposure to the promise of a life of ease and luxury and immediate gratification through no effort of their own by those who recruit others to come to the land of Fantasy. Others are snared later in life and sucked in because they want to supplement their retirement. These recruiters rely on attributes of laziness and greed and are paid very well for their efforts. They are very successful due to the desires of those who want to get something for nothing.
One man who made a rather long stay in Fantasy came in to the police department not long ago. The front office manager came to me after about 20 minutes and asked me to talk to him. He had received a check in the mail for several thousand dollars along with a letter asking him to send a processing fee in order to collect the remainder of his winnings of $60,000. The front office had tried to tell him for 20 minutes that it was from a recruiter for Fantasyland, but “the man followed up the letter with a phone call” and that made the letter more believable. Despite the fact that the man had entered no drawings and had not sent off any replies to offers, he still lived in the land of Fantasy and maintained that this was legitimate. His beating came several days later.
Sometimes the people in the land of Fantasy can take their friends with them. One lady got a check for $2998.70 for “winning the lotto”. She didn’t have a checking account, so she used her friend’s. The friend deposited the check, took out $1500 and passed some checks of her own. The original check didn’t clear and the bank now wants the friend to pay back the $1500, but it has been spent to cover the checks that she wrote that are now bouncing. The original check came from a bank in Georgia and the callback number isn’t answering. Hmm! Several calls revealed that the fraud came from London, with an office in Calgary. The lady had already been the victim of one scam, and she and her friend will be undergoing several beatings for their choices.
Another contact from a recruiter from Fantasyland came in the form of an e-mail. The gist of the message, barely decipherable through the broken English and very poor grammar that would have given any English teacher a stroke, was a promise of $700,000 after the recipient sent a processing fee of $85 to the accountant. The recipient had deep roots in the land of Reality and wasn’t about to be swayed. She did not get beat up.
There are some things that the people in Reality can do to avoid the beatings after a trip in Fantasyland. First, don’t go to Fantasyland. If you didn’t enter, you didn’t win. If the callback number doesn’t work, it’s probably fake. Ask yourself why they can’t deduct the fee from your winnings and send the rest? (It’s a scam). If they call you as a representative of your bank and ask for your numbers, don’t give it to them. The real folks have it already. (It’s a scam). Realize that true happiness comes with work and effort. Don’t be enticed by the offers. Come back to Reality and avoid the beating.
Sgt. Craig Harding
Public Information Officer |
