Early this month a local Greenwich resident was victimized by an old scam that has been circulating for years.
According to Lt. Kraig Gray of Greenwich Police Dept, the victim was contacted via e-mail by a scammer who related she was an employee within the human resource department of a prominent healthcare company.
In the email, they offered her an “at home” position within the company.
The victim accepted the officer and signed a contract with the company taking a position with the company.
According to police, the victims new “employer” then mailed a check to the victim to deposit into her personal banking account. The victim was then to write a check to another company for a similar amount minus her “salary” for the transaction.
After several transactions, her personal bank advised her that the last check she had attempted to deposit was fraudulent and that her account was currently overdrawn for several thousand dollars.
The victim then realized that she had become a victim of a fraudulent scam and responded to Greenwich Police to report this incident.
“This is just another example of an old scam where con artists using fake job offers to bait and hook new victims and perpetrate a ‘check-cashing’ scam,” said Lt. Gray. “In this scam, the goal is to steal money from you through a money-laundering The victim often is unwittingly helping the thief steal money from someone else as well.”
The upshot is that people advised to never trust any new “job” where your boss expects you to send money to him or any job where you get a check before actually doing any work.