A statement released today by Terrace RCMP at 11:56 AM:
“The Terrace RCMP has had two similar fraud incidents that the public needs to be aware of so that they don’t fall victim to these scammers. This scam is commonly referred to as the Money Transfer Request, a spin off the classic Nigerian scam.
“The scammer makes initial contact thru a social media site like LinkedIn offering a job to work as a collections person of sorts for their out of country company. Part of the agreement is that the person will be sent cheques from companies in North America owing money to the out of country company. The person would then cash these cheques, take a percentage of the payment, and then wire transfer the remainder to the company.
“These cheques are all actually from legitimate companies which appear to have been stolen out of the mail and the only part that has been altered is the payee name. The amount, signatures, and other info are still the same. The cheque clears and the crime is not noticed till much later. One the money is wire transferred, it is very difficult to reverse and if it is sent overseas then the likelihood of recovery is close to nil.
“The old adage of “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is” is good advice to live by. If you are not sure about a situation, call your police before proceeding. Preventing a crime from happening in the first place is our number one goal, says Cst Angela Rabut, Community Policing/Media Relations Terrace RCMP.”