Published: May 17, 2008 12:53 am         

Another scam making area rounds

GREENVILLE — Area law enforcement agencies are warning of yet another scam in the area, designed to get access to an individual’s bank account by offering the person a too good to be true job.

The Greenville Police Department issued a warning Friday of the scheme, which involves advertising for customer service representatives. During the past two weeks, several residents in nearby Paris became victims of the scam, causing them to lose thousands of dollars.

Some of the victims received checks from an unknown company asking them to test a money gram system. The victims were asked to send money to an unknown person in Canada. Telephone numbers in the advertising material were traced to Canada and persons responding to the advertising have lost large sums of money.

At least one local resident received a similar offer in the mail this week. In it, a Canadian company offered to hire the individual as a “mystery shopper” and providing a check for almost $5,000. As part of this person’s “training”, they were asked to take the check to their bank and deposit the funds into their account, then send the money to someone whom they had never met, who has a Canadian address. In exchange, the person receiving the letter would receive an $800 payment.

The individual did not fall for the apparent scam, but wanted to alert others in the area about the operation.

The warning from the police department explains how it is believed most of the scams circulating in the area are originating in foreign countries making them difficult to investigate.

The Greenville Police Department is warning citizens to be cautious when responding to e-mail or letters with offers that sound too good to be true.