scam mail at work

[KellyHabersham]

Anyone ever received scam-related snail mail at work? We've gotten some a few times at the church office.......the first was a "check-cashing" scam (complete with a fake check), and this week we received one of those "send a dollar to the five people on this list" scam letters. The weird thing is that both pieces of mail were addressed to "Sally Manderson", and to the best of my knowledge, there has never been anyone working for/attending this church who had that name. (or if they did, it was before my family started attending in the early 1990's)

[KiaKat]

My mom is an office manager at a church, has been for over a decade. She sometimes tells me stories about scammers, who are usually trying to pull one over on the church. If I remember correctly, there was one that tried to take the church for over $1,000 - luckily they caught that one before any cheques were issued.

[KellyHabersham]

Well, nothing was mentioned about the church or the associated preschool/daycare center, so I'm assuming that either the scammers were just targeting our physical address, or that they were trying to get someone in the nearby apartment complex, and had incorrect info. I did find the "fake check" mail rather amusing though........it was mailed from somewhere in Canada, the letter (if I recall correctly) mentioned something about "Sally" being approved for a grant, and address/company on the check apparently belongs to a company which operates horse racetracks.

[prb]

Well, nothing was mentioned about the church or the associated preschool/daycare center, so I'm assuming that either the scammers were just targeting our physical address, or that they were trying to get someone in the nearby apartment complex, and had incorrect info. I did find the "fake check" mail rather amusing though........it was mailed from somewhere in Canda, the letter (if I recall correctly) mentioned something about "Sally" being approved for a grant, and address/company on the check apparently belongs to a company which operates horse racetracks.

Hmm... horse racing.... Woodbine Entertainment perhaps. But it's sad when scammers try to pull one over on a non-profit organization.

[KellyHabersham]

Actually, it was a company in Chicago....not going to name them out of respect for their privacy, but they do have a website, and their mailing address matched with the one on the fake check. The actual mail though, apparently came from a P.O. Box number in Canada.........saved the envelope, but since I'm not familiar with Canadian abbreviations, it's hard to read.

[prb]

Actually, it was a company in Chicago....not going to name them out of respect for their privacy, but they do have a website, and their mailing address matched with the one on the fake check. The actual mail though, apparently came from a P.O. Box number in Canada.........saved the envelope, but since I'm not familiar with Canadian abbreviations, it's hard to read.

PO Box = Post Office Box
STN = Station/Post Office
AB = Alberta
BC = British Columbia
MB = Manitoba
NB = New Brunswick
NL = Newfoundland and Labrador
NS = Nova Scotia
NT = Northwest Territories
NU = Nunavut
PE = Prince Edward Island
ON = Ontario
QC = Quebec
SK = Saskatchewan
YK = Yukon

[KellyHabersham]

Thanks much - some of those I did know, but it's always good to learn new things. Going by that list, it seems that the "fake check" scammers were using a P.O. Box number in Quebec.....although ithe name they used had nothing to do with the racetrack operating company......really sad that they thought someone would be gullible enough to fall for it.

[BlaqueKatt]

both pieces of mail were addressed to "Sally Manderson"

well most houses of worship don't allow amphibians

"sally manderson=salamander"

[Danno]

...and this week we received one of those "send a dollar to the five people on this list" scam letters.

I got one of those recently too and have to ask, what the hell is up with those? I'd previous only seen the e-mail version, where of course nobody actually sends any money, they just keep forwarding it hoping eventually someone will be stupid enough to send them some.

But when you get an actual envelope in the mail telling you to send three bucks to each person listed, and THE ENVELOPE YOU RECEIVED DOES NOT CONTAIN THREE BUCKS it should be obvious to even the most gullible rube that nobody's getting any money.

Of course there was no return address, lest I be tempted to send back a letter asking, "Where's my three bucks, dumbass?"

[Blue Dragon]

I got one of those recently too and have to ask, what the hell is up with those? I'd previous only seen the e-mail version, where of course nobody actually sends any money, they just keep forwarding it hoping eventually someone will be stupid enough to send them some.

But when you get an actual envelope in the mail telling you to send three bucks to each person listed, and THE ENVELOPE YOU RECEIVED DOES NOT CONTAIN THREE BUCKS it should be obvious to even the most gullible rube that nobody's getting any money.

Of course there was no return address, lest I be tempted to send back a letter asking, "Where's my three bucks, dumbass?"

Those have been around for YEARS. They became very popular on the internet recently.

[Danno]

But in years past, did people put money in the envelopes? It just seems like the already obvious fraud is ten times more obvious that way.

Online, the target is supposed to believe that everyone getting the spam is also mailing out money. Call it the honor system, I suppose. However, when you actually receive an empty envelope, it's pretty damn hard to fall for. Or so I would think; humanity continually manages to disappoint.

[Dips]

Before email was common the Nigerian scammers used snail mail to send the "I need your help to move millions of dollars" letters.

From what I understand the scammers would employ a small army of people to write thousands of letters by hand then mail copies to every address in a business directory. My boss actually has a few of these letters on hand.

Once email became more common that method was abandoned because email is a much cheaper and faster way of reaching potential targets.

Now that everyone expects scam emails, it appears that the scammers have started going back to snail mail and other more expensive methods. Probably because they hope that targets might less suspicious of snail mail.

By the way, it does work. We received a scam fax requesting a form be filled out for tax and customs purposes. Our accountant did fill it out and the scammer tried to transfer $20,000 out of the company bank account. The bank caught it before that happened.

It's not as if our accountant is a dummy. She isn't, but smart people can be tricked. It didn't target greed (she would have been alerted by that), it targeted the fact that we do a lot of overseas business and routinely give our account information to others who pay us by wire transfer. So she didn't think the request was unusual.

[wolfie]

QC = Quebec

PQ (Province de Quebec) is an alternate for Quebec. It came into fairly common use back when the separatists wanted to break away from Canada, and people outside the province wanted to remind them in a subtle way that they were still part of Canada.

[prb]

PQ (Province de Quebec) is an alternate for Quebec. It came into fairly common use back when the separatists wanted to break away from Canada, and people outside the province wanted to remind them in a subtle way that they were still part of Canada.

Actually, if I recall correctly, PQ was the official designation for Quebec, but Canada Post announced that they would stop delivering to addresses identified as PQ.

[PepperElf]

@ people trying to scam money out of a church.

dont care what faith the church follows... to me trying to scam money out of it is pretty ffing low.




glad you didn't fall for it tho.