May 21, 2019 – Slinger, WI – A resident from the Village of Slinger dropped off a package at the Slinger Police Department. It’s a common scam and police posted a note to share with the public.
This is a common scam. Do not cash any check you receive that comes from a “person” or “company” that you are not familiar with or any entity that you are not expecting money from.
Our local banks have become well versed in detecting fake checks but occasionally a check will be cashed. Once it is determined to be a fake check the person cashing it is out ALL of the money.
Things to look at from these documents:
*The return address on the envelope is from a person in Virginia.
*The check is from “The Town of Morningside.” Why would a small community be paying you to do this? The package came from Virginia and now there is a check from Maryland.
*The entire check was printed from a computer including who it was issued to and the signatures. This is not obvious from a photo but it is when you look at the actual check.
*The routing number on the check is for Suntrust Bank in Orlando, Florida and not Maryland.
*The check was cut with a scissors or cutting board and not from perforated check paper.
*The instruction letter has numerous grammatical and sentence structure red flags. Legitimate companies have their documents professionally written, edited, proofread etc. This document was not.
Unfortunately the Slinger Police Department is limited in what can be done with these scams. If we determine the suspect(s) are local, a thorough investigation can be done. In this case, if we confirm the package came from Virginia very little can be done by the department.
Police encourage anyone that receives anything by mail that looks too good to be true, or suspicious, to contact police and it will reviewed.
