Carrabelle Police Department

Scams

Common Elements:

1.	The email or requestor asks for bank account information, credit card
	numbers, driver's license numbers, passport numbers, your mother's
	maiden name or other personal information. (Automatic Red Flag!)

2.	The prize promoters ask for a fee (for administration, "processing", taxes,
	etc.) to be paid in advance. A legitimate lottery simply deducts that from
	the winnings!

3.	Reply addresses to these scams are usually either to a Yahoo.com or
	gmail.com or any other public email provider, scammers like to use these free
	services. Remember if some huge financial institution or legal firm wants you
	to contact them, they would have a private domain with their own email
	address.

4.	Most of letters received are written by people who have a poor command of
	the English language with errors in punctuation, grammar and over use of
	ellipses (periods, asterisks, dashes, etc.)

5.	When selling an item online, someone offers you more than your asking
	price, usually to cover the so called shipping costs and they want the item
	shipped to a different location or another country.

6.	The caller or emailer is a victim and was enticed to travel to, or moved to
	Nigeria or a border to country and now needs your help to return to the United
	States. Often times offering to send "over invoiced contract" funds to you or
	deposit them into your personal bank account.

7.	The confidential nature of the transaction is emphasized.

*If you have received any scams by mail, turn it over to your local Postmaster.*



Lottery Scams

	You've been notified that you won an International Lottery and could receive a check for $400,000(or a similar amount). All you have to do is pay the tax or administrative fee.

	Key Points

	*First, its a violation of US Federal Law to play an International Lottery.*

	You never have to pay to collect winnings from a legitimate lottery. You pay taxes AFTER you receive the winnings. There are no other fees.

	If you hold a winning lottery ticket, you notify the lottery (they do not notify you; not by email, not by phone, and not by mail).

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Ignore all mail and phone solicitations for foreign lottery promotions. If you receive what looks like lottery material from a foreign country, give it to your local postmaster.

For more information regarding scams, please visit the Federal Trade Commission.

Scams

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