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Blog of an ESL teacher

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manottoli

manottoli

United States

June 25, 2008

The mother of my student from Africa asked me to look at a letter she received last week.  It was from Canada and it said "You have won $250,000 USD.  Enclosed is a check for $4000 to pay to Ms X (another name) who is the tax agent."

Inside was a check that was from a bank in Florida.  It had a gold hologram security stamp.

"Oh, Ms. N," my student's mom said, "If this is real, it is a miracle!"  This family came to the USA as refugees and they are really struggling to get by.  Sometimes I bring them rice and other things.  I do this because I know what it is like to be a stranger in another country...it's very difficult!

 Well, as convincing as the letter and the check seemed I told her I wanted my friend, who is a professional FRAUD EXAMINER, to look at it.  He said that it was fake.  He said, "If she deposited the check, the check would be no good and then it would be sent back to the "company" BUT the bank would have printed her account number on the back of the check.  Then the criminals would have her bank account number."  Or he said that it could be a money laundering scheme and if she signed the check and the criminals were caught, she would be in legal trouble, too!  Then she might get deported!!!!

It is a very dangerous scam.  Why?  Because new immigrants who have money troubles might be tempted and believe that in America, one can get easy money.  Many new immigrants believe this about America because of movies.

I cautioned her to be very very careful in the future.

I hope she will be.

More entries: A Scam (2), tragedy in my city (5), Game Day (1), So difficult (1), full of hot air (2)

View all entries from Blog of an ESL teacher >

05:22 AM Mar 04 2013

WobblyJoe

WobblyJoe
United States

excellent advice and very true. there is a saying here that "if something looks too good to be true, it probably is". Scams like you describe are common and so people must use caution.

04:20 AM Mar 04 2013

ola33

ola33
Japan

First, I've learned a lesson, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Even if it comes from so trustworthy countries as Canada and United States.

There're different programs that provide help for the refugees before they find a job. They are far from being starving.

I remember one fraud on the nice website of selling stuff. There was a very good car, mildly used and a good model. And it wasn't expensive! Too good to be true!

After a couple of exchanging e-mails and being asked to transfer money first as a fee for something, I got it that it was 100% fraud.