To the Editor:
I am writing this letter to raise awareness of the scams that are being presented to the public, especially the elderly.
Last week, my 84-year-old mother received a letter in the mail stating that she had won a million bucks! Along with this letter came a check for $3400 made out in her name. Living on a fixed income, she was quite excited to think that she had money to spend and wasn’t sure what to do with all of that money.
I told her I was sure it was a scam but she insisted that my husband and I take a look at it. Thank God she did. I must admit it looked quite legitimate. It didn’t say non-negotiable anywhere on the check, although, we thought it was quite odd that the letter had a letterhead from Reader’s Digest and the check was from some other company.
The letter asked that she call an 800 number that was given to verify who she was before they sent her the million dollar winnings. I called the number and pretended to be my mother. A legitimate sounding recording, woman’s voice, asked me to give the extension number that was given in the letter to connect me to a service representative. A man answered, in quite broken English, and said he had a few questions for me. He asked for my full name. I gave it to him. He asked my date of birth. I gave it to him. He stuttered and stammered a bit (hopefully thinking I did not sound 84 years old).
He said he would have someone call me right back. I said, I am at my daughter’s house and here is her number. He hung up and never returned a call.
I took my Mom, the letter and the check to “The First” this morning. We showed this information to my good friend Denise. She made a phone call and verified that it was a fake, although she agreed it looked legitimate.
This happens all the time, People from my Mom’s generation don’t understand these scams. They come from a generation of honesty and trust. Please, everyone, be aware of these scams. The way this one works is, someone like my Mom would take this to her local bank. They know her and know she has an account there. The check looks like it could have been interest from an investment. It probably could have been cashed.
When the phone call was made to this company, they would have said that they would release the million dollars when she sent them a check to cover taxes, or whatever. The fraudulent check would have bounced and she would have sent money to these people and they would be gone. She would have then been responsible to cover the bad check. What is this world coming to?
B. Smalley, Nobleboro
