Check Scam

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Story Published: Sep 23, 2008 at 5:11 PM PST

By Audrey Asistio

YAKIMA -- They are preying on you. Pitching free money from grant brokers, trying to help people in a tough economy.
But it's a scam and you could get taken.

"I thought, oh my God, I'm rich! That's what I thought. It was nice. It looked real,"Janie Cervantes says.

Janie is one of a couple people who called Action News, wondering about a check they got in the mail. The check is written out for $4,900 and it's only one of two checks they'd be receiving. The letter says all they have to do is pay $980 and the rest is theirs. It's a total of over $9,000. The check looks real. It has a routing number, watermark and every characteristic that makes it legit. Janie deposited the check, so Action News wanted to see if she really received free money.

Action News looked up the company on the check, but it doesn't exist. So we went to a local bank to find the truth.

Yakima Valley Credit Union Director of Branch Operations, Karen Allan, tells Action News, "This is a scam. This individual, if she negotiated this, unfortunately, she's probably out $980. And if she's used those other funds, she would be out that as well."

Karen says once the check is deposited, scam artists are able to take the amount on the check, out of your account.
Luckily, Janie's bank caught onto the scam before it got any further. It saved her the grief, but it doesn't always work out that way.

Janie says, "It's bad. These people need to go to jail. It's horrible when they try to rip off people."

So if the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you're not sure where the check is coming from, don't deposit it into your account, because instead of getting money, you'll probably end up losing it. The local bank says this is one of the easiest ways scam artists are getting into bank accounts, so keep on the look out.

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