| The Office of Inspector General was alerted
by the Cedar Falls- Field Benefit Administration office of a potential
scam being perpetrated against Maine residents. The Attorney General
Steven Rowe warned Maine residents that professional con artists are using
the pretense of a Canadian lottery to bilk them out of thousands of
dollars, with a new twist: they send cashier checks.
The basis of this scam consists of the con artist
sending a letter with a bogus cashier’s check to Maine residents
portraying to be from a company named “IGA Management Systems” and
announcing to the recipients they have won money from the “North American
Prize Pool.” However, before the recipients can collect their money
they have to pay for “taxes and charges.” The recipients are told to
contact a “lottery claim agent” to finalize the payment process. The
“lottery claim agent” ask the recipient to provide them with their
identifying information, bank account, and routing information so the
alleged “lottery winnings” can be deposited in the recipients banking
accounting.
An identical scam is operating out of Vancouver,
British Columbia using the name Coral Management Payment Systems.
While we haven’t seen this locally, it may be coming to your mailbox in
the future. Remember: unless you’ve initiated the contact, you
should NEVER give out your personal information (social security number,
credit care number, banking account and routing number over the phone or
through e-mail).
For more information about different scams, call
Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Aaron R. Jordan at ext.
3744.
For information about reporting suspected fraud,
waste or abuse to the Office of Inspector General, please call an OIG
investigator: SA Tom Zigan at x 3104; SA Jay Hancock x 6991; SA
Cornelia Green at x 3315 (TTY/TDD Users: 202-326-4115).
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