E-mail scams - March 5

The Waynesboro Police Department has received information of several e-mail scams that seem to be growing in frequency and audacity. In some cases the e-mails are being sent to individuals and even to City of Waynesboro e-mail accounts. The scams all seem to have the same desired result. That is that some unsuspecting person will comply with the sender’s requests to either handle or send money to an entity, most likely outside the United States. In one case the individual is posing as a hit man and attempting to distort money from his would be victim in exchange for canceling the hit. This is just a very “over the top” way of trying to deceive an uninformed person into handing over money through an internet ruse. Another one offers a business opportunity that is too good to be true and is a little bit more professionally done to include a hyper-link to website. Also we were informed of one case where a local person actually had a vehicle for sale on the internet and a scam artist agreed to pay $3,000.00 for the vehicle. When the check arrived in the seller’s mail it was for $5,700. The seller contacted the purported buyer via e-mail to tell him of the overpayment but became suspicious when the buyer advised him to “just cash the check and send me the $1,700 back. The check of course was verified to be bogus.

The Department requests that you please assist us with getting the information out that these types of e-mail scams are on the rise but can easily be defeated by simply being vigilant and using common sense.



Sgt. Kelly L. Walker
Services Division
Waynesboro Police Dept.