Stacia Crane, Public Information Officer for the US Postal Inspection Service, was our guest speaker at the April 2 PRNC meeting. She spoke about how scammers try to coax Americans to play the lottery in foreign countries such as Canada or Jamaica. Usually they tell you that you have won, but you must send money to pay the taxes on your winnings. Your first clue is the bulk rate postage on the letter to you.

What should you do, if you receive one of these letters? You should take it to your local post office and ask them to deliver it to the postal inspector, or you may file a complaint online here.

Other related scams include offering you a job working at home. This would be a job reshipping these fraudulent letters, so they appear to be local. That type of job would put you squarely in the middle of committing mail fraud yourself.

Also, beware of calls from relatives or friends in distress needing money to be wired to a foreign country. Even calls that appear to be local on your caller ID, may actually be from somewhere else. The caller can use your social media information and google earth to talk about your neighborhood so it seems like they are right there.

FBI Fine Virus

There is a new “drive-by” virus on the Internet, and it often carries a fake message—and fine—purportedly from the FBI.

“We’re getting inundated with complaints,” said Donna Gregory of the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), referring to the virus known as Reveton ransomware, which is designed to extort money from its victims.

Reveton is described as drive-by malware because unlike many viruses—which activate when users open a file or attachment—this one can install itself when users simply click on a compromised website. Once infected, the victim’s computer immediately locks, and the monitor displays a screen stating there has been a violation of federal law.

The bogus message goes on to say that the user’s Internet address was identified by the FBI or the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section as having been associated with child pornography sites or other illegal online activity. To unlock their machines, users are required to pay a fine using a prepaid money card service. Find out more...