International Law

Who Else Wants to be a Millionaire?

Ed Dickson has a neat little post about a new advance fee cheque scam, Mega Millions Lottery spoofed in scam

"The California Lottery announced that the Mega Millions lottery -- where $270 million was won last night -- is now being being used to trick people into cashing worthless checks.

The intent behind this is to get people to cash a bogus check and send the money back to them before your bank, or financial institution of choice, realizes the item is NO GOOD!

Most of the time they prefer you wire them the money so it has disappeared into thin air when the criminal aspect is discovered. Once the money is picked up -- especially via Western Union or MoneyGram -- the sender has little to no recourse."

The previous advance fee scams used lotteries that were fake.

But this is a new little twist - one that will trick or trap more people.

The California lottery is well known, the authority it confers upon the fake email will be acted upon by some people.

What I wonder is: what is the legitimate use of Western Union or Moneygram?

Perhaps, Ed will drop by and tell us.

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on February 25, 2008 (boomark / email).