By David Heiller

Con artists are hitting close to home these days.

It seems like scams used to happen in distant places, to people we didnít know.

But at least a couple of scams have occurred in Caledonia recently.

I reported on one in the March 30 Argus, when someone wanted to buy a car from Mike Colleran by sending him a cashiers check for twice the amount. Mike was supposed to send him the difference in the cost. In this case it was $7,000.

Mike didnít fall for it, even though he had a cashierís check in hand, delivered by UPS.

Cashiersí checks are generally considered the same as cash, but this one was a fake, and a darned good one. Mike figured it out, and even pulled the chumpís chain a bit, led him on, called the FBI, tried to catch him.

Of course that didnít work. Those guys are as slick as dogfish, and they probably have radar for when someone might be on to them.

It was interesting reading the e-mails that Colleran received from his con artist. The tone started so friendly, with even a closing of ìGod blessî on one. But when Mike started sending up his questions and protests, the tone got harsh. The writer had his lawyer threaten Mike with a lawsuit, saying that a contract had been entered, and the money must be sent. He even said the FBI had been notified. How do you define irony?

The right person would have been frightened and perhaps intimidated into sending the seven grand.

Another scam that I didnít report happened in Caledonia recently. Police chief Randy Shefelbine told me about it, although without any names attached. The victim was too embarrassed about it, and too distraught.

The victim was selling something on-line, and a lady claiming to be from Tampa, Florida, paid her $3,000 in three $1,000 postal money orders. She deposited them in her bank account, and sent off the merchandise. The money orders were process by the Federal Reserve. A few days later the bank was informed that they were no good. In the meantime the woman had written checks from her account, using money that didnít exist. She was out her product, and also out a lot of money.

There again, it seemed safe. Money orders are like cashiersí checks, as good as gold, right? Not any more.

Counterfeit postal money orders are being used more and more to gyp people out of items. Liz Klug, the operations supervisor at Merchants Bank in Caledonia, said the bank has received reports of them from Spring Grove and Caledonia post offices. They are usually for between $900 and $950, Klug said.

ìYou want to be very careful about accepting any kind of postal money order at all,î Klug added.

Money orders have water marks of Benjamin Franklin in a white oval on the left front side that can be seen when held up to a light. There is also a dark security thread on the front from top to bottom on the right side that has the letters USPS repeated. It also can bee seen when held to a light.

Often the ploy with money orders is similar to the one that Colleran experienced. For example, they will purchase an item on an on-line auction site for $50, send a money order for $1,000, then ask the recipient to wire back the extra cash.

Most people will not do that, but in the law of averages, a few people will (especially with that intimidation thrown in). If you devote your time to doing this, you probably will make some money before you (hopefully) get caught.

The lesson here is to be darned careful. A couple cliches are in order too: When in doubt, donít. And if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

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Caledonia Argus
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