Newport Police Warn of International Scams

Detectives at the Newport Beach Police Department regularly see cases of cross-border scams and want to make sure residents don't become the next victim of fraud.

According to police, the most common scams come in the form of foreign lotteries, Nigerian foreign money offers, distressed relative schemes and check overpayment schemes.

"We field numerous calls every week regarding different scams and wanted to release information to the public so they would be more informed on how to recognize if someone is preying upon them," said Newport Beach police Detective Garrett Fitzgerald.

What to look out for:

• Foreign Lotteries: Mass email messages are sent to recipients claiming they have won a large cash prize associated with a foreign lottery. The message requests that you send money to pay for taxes, insurance, and/or processing fees, required in order to release the winning cash prize to the victim. The goal is to try and get the victim to send money or at least to acquire their bank account or credit card numbers for unauthorized access. Police say its important to remember it is against the law to play a foreign lottery and credit card and bank account numbers should never be given over the phone or in an email.

• Nigerian Foreign Money Offers: The Nigerian scam was named after emails that allegedly came from Nigerian officials who needed help getting their own money, which was not accessible. Current emails now tell victims the reporting party will transfer thousands of dollars into the victim’s bank account if they will just pay a fee or taxes to help the reporting party access their money. 

• Distressed Relative Scheme: The type of scheme usually targets the elderly. The victim is contacted by phone and requested to wire money either out of the country or to another state in order to pay for court fees incurred by the arrest of the victim’s relative. In this scheme, the suspect may have some limited information of the relative in question and of the victim, giving credibility to the request. The suspect creates a sense of urgency and will ask the victim to immediately go to the closest Western Union and wire money out of the state. The police department will not review your case unless there is a financial loss. Therefore, it is imperative that you verify your relative’s whereabouts before wiring any funds to an unknown person.

• Check Overpayment Schemes: Check overpayment schemes generally target people who have posted an item for sale online. The suspect, posing as a potential buyer from a foreign country, emails the seller and offers to buy the item with a cashier's check, money order, personal check, or corporate check. The suspect sends you a counterfeit check that looks authentic and is made payable for more money than you expected. They ask you to deposit it into your bank account and send some portion of the funds to a foreign account. The checks may be written off of the valid account of unsuspecting victim businesses located in the U. S.

If you think you may have been scammed, contact the NBPD's Detective Bureau at 949-644-3790, or you can file a complaint at www.econsumer.gov.