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Scam Artists Think Big, Send Lottery Checks to Marks

January 27, 2006
Scam operators are thinking bigger these days. They don't just want to swindle your for a few hundred dollars, they want everything in your bank account.

Getting access to a consumer's bank account increasingly is the objective of most scammers, according to police. They're even retooling some old tried and true scams, giving them a new twist.

For example, criminals running the fake lottery scam used to tell you that you had won big money in a lottery, but to claim your prize you had to wire them money to pay the taxes. That fee – usually a few hundred dollars – was all the scammer received for his effort.

Police say criminals now do it a little differently. They inform you that you have won a lottery and send you a check. The check, of course, will bounce but consumers see the check and assume the scam is legitimate, then give out their bank account information.

From there, it's easy for the perpetrator to withdraw all the money in the account.

Authorities say consumers should never cash any check that unexpectedly comes in the mail. They also remind consumers that you can't win a lottery that you didn't enter.

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