|
|
We
welcome your letter to the editor.
Letters
should be no longer than 300 words and must be signed and include
a phone number. Longer letters may be edited for clarity and space.
Submissions should be typewritten if possible.
Deadline
for submission is noon on Monday.
Perspectives
by Patti M. Clark
NH Publisher
Be
on the lookout for scams
Winning a huge sum of
money is nearly everyone’s dream. That’s obvious from
the number of people who played the Powerball last week.
And it’s even more obvious by the people who fall for scams
that instead of filling their bank accounts, empty them.
Luckily for one Owen Countian, the promise of $100,000 seemed
a little too good to be true.
Last month, she received a letter informing her that she’d
won $100,000. Unfortunately, the letter states, an error in the
database caused some of the names and numbers to not be properly
processed. She needed to make a phone call to start the process
for claiming her funds.
In addition, included in the letter was a cashier’s check
for $3,850. The letter states that the cashier’s check is
the amount to be paid for processing and surcharges associated
with the disbursement of the award. She was to cash the check
and send the money to a company in Toronto, Ontario, in order
to cover the fees associated with winning the prize.
She called the bank on which the cashier’s check was written.
What she found out didn’t really surprise her. It was a
fraud. Had she cashed the check at her bank, her account would
have been debited the amount once the fraudulent cashier’s
check bounced. By that time, she would have made the payment to
the Ontario company and been out nearly $4,000.
She did the right things. She called the bank. She called the
police. She didn’t get caught up in the scam. She’s
lucky.
According to the Web site www.crimes-of-persuasion.com, a survey
commissioned by the National Consumers League found that 92 percent
of all adults have been notified they’ve won “free”
prizes. Of those, a third responded to the claim. Less than 20
percent of those who responded actually received their prizes.
“With legitimate sweepstakes you never have to pay any insurance,
taxes or shipping or handling charges, let alone wire it to a
foreign country, said Tara Flynn of the Federal Trade Commission
on the same Web site.
How do you protect yourself when these scams are so rampant?
The FTC offers the following tips in its brochure, “Prize
Offers: You Don’t Have to Pay to Play:”
• Legitimate sweepstakes don’t require you to pay
or buy something to enter or improve your chances of wining or
to pay taxes or shipping and handling charges in advance to get
your prize.
• Sponsors of legitimate contests identify themselves prominently.
Fradulent promoters are more likely to downplay their identities.
Legitimate promoters also provide you with an address or toll-free
phone number so you can ask that your name be removed from their
mailing or calling list.
• It’s highly unlikely that you’ve won a big
prize if your notification was mailed by bulk rate. Check the
postmark on the envelope or postcard. Also be suspicious of telemarketers
who say you’ve won a contest you can’t remember entering.
Additional tips from the FTC brochure are available at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conlin/pubs/tmarkg/prizes.htm.
It’s OK to dream big, to imagine what would happen if you
hit the jackpot and won a really big prize. Just be careful that
in the process of getting your jackpot, you don’t end up
emptying your bank account.
|
