Mogens Olesen thought he won a $500,000 lottery.
.[ copy of lottery letter_1
lottery
scam_2]
All the ninety-two year old widower had to do was pay a
processing fee. Olesen sent $700. Then another $1,500.
But when the "lottery" folks asked for a third payment
of $2,500, Olesen grew suspicious.
Olesen told the company that promised the lottery winnings that he
couldn't afford to send more money. So the company told Olesen
they would send him a cheque to cover all further fees. Still
suspicious, Olesen asked his bank to examine the cheque. It was a
fake and of course, so was the lottery.
Luckily, Olesen's bank was able to detect the fake cheque right
away. Most cheque-clearing systems used by North American banks
don't know, with 100% certainty, for months if a cheque is good.
That's because cheques have to physically travel between banks,
branches and processing centres to be truly verified. Until the
journey between the bank where the cheque is deposited and the
paying bank is completed, there is no confirmation that a cheque
is legitimate.
The depositing bank essentially credits the depositor with the
funds while the cheque undergoes the "clearing" process.
It can take a long time for a bank to figure out a cheque is
fake and conmen rely on those bank lag times in order to pull off
their crime.
Turns out Olesen, living in North Carolina, was just one of the
many seniors targeted by the latest kind of fake cheque fraud. A
new twist on an old con. Olesen is one of thousands who were told
they'd won a lottery, but had to pay fees in order to receive
their prize. But this time fake checks were part of the equation.
Victims were told to deposit the check and return the money. By
the time the fake checks bounced, the crooks were long gone and
the victims were on the hook for the money from the banks.
While Olesen lost a couple thousand dollars, others lose much
more.
It's estimated that gangsters flood Canada and the United
States with billions of dollars worth of fake checks, every year.
As Vancouver RCMP Staff Sergeant Tim Olmstead, who investigated
the Mogens Olesen case, explains, check fraud schemes, operating
out of Canada are a growing problem.
"Well, it's a huge problem and we actually have a fairly
significant task force right out of this section [where] that's
all they do is that type of mass marketing fraud," Olmstead
told W-FIVE.
The RCMP, in fact, had the Burnaby, BC check fraud operation
under surveillance and eventually caught the criminals red-handed.
"As we entered the building, two of the suspects were
actually in the process of stuffing so-called bait letters
destined for Americans."
Three men were charged with 41 counts of operating a
counterfeit check lottery scam. One, Michael Onesmus, was found
guilty and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
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