by Al Summers
News Editor
alsummers@timescourier.com
Some people will try to rip off anything, including a church, according to Gilmer County Detective Lt. Lane Bennett.
The law officer told the Times-Courier Tuesday, Jan, 24, that an organization out of Canada had attempted to scam a local church out of money using counterfeit United States Postal Service (USPS) money orders, cashiers checks, and counter checks with legitimate account numbers on them.
Bennett said, “We have had groups contacting churches and individuals, for the most part via e-mail, offering to make donations to the church. The catch is that the church has to use some of the money it receives to make a small donation to a church in another state.
“The local church receives a USPS money order, a cashiers check, or something similar and turns around and makes a smaller donation to another church or organization. When the local church goes to deposit the money order it is found to be counterfeit and their smaller donation check has cleared on the other end. The local church is stuck without a donation and a loss of whatever amount of money it donated,” said Bennett. The detective also said the groups are contacting other charity groups and, in some cases, individuals. “For some reason, these scam artists go after retired persons and others who are interested in helping others in need.”
Bennett asked that anyone receiving any type of suspicious solicitation to contact the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division at (706) 635-4646. He also said banks could identify counterfeit financial notes.
“We have been working with the USPS postal inspectors and other law enforcement agencies trying to locate these individuals and putting a stop to this practice. Most of the scammers operate out of foreign countries and they are difficult to track,” said Bennett. “This latest scam has been traced to Canada, but we have seen a number of them in Nigeria.”