BBB warns residents to be leery of new scams
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

In the same week that the Better Business Bureau released warnings about scams, two Jasper residents reported their first-hand experiences.

Stacie Wallace brought in a letter her daughter received that promised, "It is with great honor that we are delighted to announce you as the grand prize winner of the 2007 Consumers Clearinghouse draw."

The lure? $1,000,000 in U.S. dollars. The name of the organization sounds like Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, an advertising company that has awarded legitimate prizes for decades.

Wallace's daughter was instructed to deposit a check and send a moneygram, two things the BBB says should immediately set off warning bells.

Wallace said her daughter and the bank lost $4,600. She's filed a complaint, but she wants others to know it can happen to anyone, even here in Jasper.

Leatha Hughes was luckier because she was more cautious. She was at home Saturday, March 31, when she received a call from a heavily-accent male voice.

"I had a hard time understanding him. I think he said he was with Bank Safe or something like that," Hughes said. "He spelled my name for me and said he wanted to recover lost monies. He promised he would recover every single dollar that I had lost due to an illegal transfer from my bank account."

Hughes said she didn't give him a chance to ask her account number. Instead, she asked him to give her a number she could call back, which he did, but it turned out to be a bogus number.

Hughes then reported the call to the Texas attorney general and alerted her bank as well.

"I didn't know it," Hughes said, "but there's no way to prevent an electronic transfer. If I had given him my account number and the routing number, I'd be in a real mess."

A common scam now lures job seekers to apply for "work at home" schemes designed only to tap into your bank account. The BBB says these are warning signs for many kinds of activities designed to separate you from your money:

Using your personal bank account: never agree to deposit checks or money orders or to have money wired into you bank account for any reason, and don't forward money from your account to another, even if you are promised reimbursement. The checks or money orders will be counterfeit and the wire transfers will eventually be rescinded.

Paying money out of your pocket: you should not have to pay a fee to learn details of a job, receive an award, or obtain a background or identity screening.

Re-shipping products: stolen credit cards are typically involved. Victims spend their own money to re-ship products and are "reimbursed" with counterfeit checks or money orders that bounce.

Cross-border action: offers from companies located outside the United States are typically suspect and much harder to investigate or prosecute if you get taken.

If you have any doubts about an offer, you can check with the BBB in Beaumont at 409 835-5951 or www.bbbsetexas.org.