IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – The holidays are here, and everyone is busy, especially scammers. One of Local News 8’s sales reps, Jay Dye, received a letter in the mail. In the letter was a check for $3,500 and some unique instructions.
“If it’s too good to be true, chances are it is too good to be true,” Dye said after seeing the offer.
“The letter basically says they want you to go and cash this check for $3,500, and you cash that, and then you go get all these gift cards for them. And send the gift cards back to them,” Dye said.
“I did call the number in here to try to find stuff, but it was some foreign speaking person that couldn’t communicate very well. So that was another indication that this was wrong,” Dye said.
The check itself looks real enough, but with the proper focus, the truth is plain as day.
But if you don’t have a high-powered camera, the experts at Westmark Credit Union say there are other ways to spot a scam.
“It was sent overnight mail. Which, a lot of the fraud checks are sent overnight mail,” said Aaron Brown. “And then it’s noticed that the sending address is from Florida, but the check is out of the Bank of the West, and then they’re living or doing business out of Indiana. So, three different areas not correlated at all.”