AN alert Terrace postal worker recognized signs of a fraud scam and alerted the potential victim, saving her a large chunk of money, says a Terrace RCMP officer.
A strong community is all about watching out for each other. In this instance the postal worker recognized that a person was probably being scammed so did not complete the money transfer. The worker advised the person to talk to the police first. By community members keeping an eye out for each other like this we can all live more safely and without fear. An engaged community is a safe community,
says Cst Angela Rabut.
The victim recently accepted a friend request on Facebook from a person from her past. This "friend" privately messaged the victim saying that they had recently won a prize and that she should enter the same contest. The victim entered the contest then received a message saying that she had won a large sum of money. To claim the prize she needed to pay the taxes for the prize money first. Direction was given to send the money via MoneyGram.
A legitimate contest will never ask a winner to pay any fees up front to receive a prize, lottery, or sweepstake. The police advised the victim that this was a scam and fortunately no money was lost, thanks in large part to the awareness and actions of the postal worker,
says Rabut.
Education is the best crime prevention. For more information on recognizing frauds and how to protect yourself go to http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca. If you would like a free presentation on fraud recognition and prevention for your community group contact the Terrace RCMP.
If you have not lost any money and have not provided personal or financial information (relating to a fraud or scam), and you simply want to inform the appropriate organizations, report it to the Canadian Anti-fraud Centre by calling 1-888-495-8501or at http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca.