The Fraud Line at the Lee County Sheriff’s has experienced an increase of calls of 208 percent between the months of March and May 2009 over the same time period in 2008. This can be contributed to the economy as well as the growing number of people who know about the Fraud Line.
The top three calls into the Fraud Line for this time period are:
1) Lottery/Sweepstakes related scams
2) Employment related scams – this includes Mystery Shoppers and employment offers found on some legitimate Web sites
3) CraigsList – the majority of which involve a potential purchaser who is really a con-artist
You can avoid falling prey to any and all of these scams by taking a few preventative steps:
– If in doubt, get their name and phone number then call the Fraud Line before sending any money or giving out any information.
– Remember, if it sounds too good to be true it normally is not true.
– In this current job market employers do not need to solicit for employees
Ask yourself a few questions:
– Do they use proper grammar?
– How is the spelling?
– Are they using a free email account?
– Is the email account an overseas email account?

For assistance call the Sheriff’s Office Fraud Line: 239-477-1242

Source: CASE, Communities Against Senior Exploitation