MEDIA RELEASE
The Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office, Criminal Investigations
Division, is currently working several cases of fraud in which area
residents responded to an ad for part-time employment. The ad was recently
placed in the Dahlonega Nugget’s August 1st and 8th,
2007 issues. The ad promised $2,700.00 a month for working 2-3 hours on
the internet per week. The ad also gave contact information as an e-mail
address of d_bhouse@yahoo.com. Victims were sent counterfeit money orders
with a request to cash them and wire some of the money back to the person
who sent it.
In order to provide the public with advice on how to respond if they
were the victim of this scam or to protect themselves from similar scams,
we are providing the following information.
Be suspicious of anyone offering to pay large sums of money for
little work.
If you did respond to the ad and were contacted by the individual,
keep copies of any e-mails sent and secure any mail received from the
post office.
If you received correspondence through the mail from the
individual, do not open it. Place it into a paper or plastic bag, and
contact the Sheriff’s Office so the documents can be forensically
analyzed.
If you received a letter containing Money Orders, with a
request from the individual to cash them and wire funds back, DO
NOT attempt to cash them! Secure the money orders and the
envelope as described above and contact the Sheriff’s Office.
Just remember the old saying, "if it sounds too good to be true,
it probably is."
Also, for people who advertise items for sale or service, the same type
scam is being conducted. Someone will send a money order to you for the
item, but the amount will be substantially larger than the price asked.
They will give you some excuse such as: "I accidentally made the
money order out for the wrong amount because my dad is in the hospital
with a coma. In my confused state, I made an error. Could you please cash
the money order and wire the money back to me, minus the price of the
item. "
***The money order(s) are almost certainly Fraudulent, DO
NOT attempt to cash them anywhere!***
You can contact the Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office at (706)
864-0414.
Captain Jason Stover
Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office
