By JOSEPH EDGERTON
jedgerton@yourneighborhoodnews.com

Following a Sept. 6 incident in which a Bedford woman lost $2,300 in an Internet scam, Bedford police have a message for the public.

“If it looks too good to be true, it probably is,” said Lt. David Davison. “People are trusting and they get taken for their money because they don’t want to appear dishonest.”

The 25-year-old woman, who police have not named due to an ongoing investigation, was defrauded of the money after responding to an offer from a would-be roommate.

“She advertised for a room to rent, and received a response from someone in Nigeria who said they were coming to the U.S. for a temporary work assignment,” Davison said. “They emailed back and forth before settling on a price, and four postal money orders were sent (to the victim).”

Davison said criminals will respond to an advertisement, and offer to pay far more money than an item is worth, be it a car or a room for rent. The criminal then sends a counterfeit check, and asks the victim to wire the difference to another location. The bank takes days to verify a check, and by the time the check bounces, the criminal has already taken the wire transferred money, usually in a matter of hours.

“People don’t want to appear dishonest, so instead of waiting for the check to clear, they wire the money right away,” said Davison. “They end up sending money from their accounts that doesn’t exist. If the check doesn’t clear, you can’t send the money.”

In this case, the woman wired the money from Wal-Mart on the same day. By the time the check didn’t clear, it was too late.

Occurrences like this aren’t an epidemic, said Davison, but this isn’t the first time a victim from Bedford has been affected.

“We tell people not to play games. We’ll get a few of these each year; usually, somebody offering to buy a car or a room for rent. These people aren’t looking for a couple hundred dollars; they’re looking for thousands,” he said. “The Internet can be a wonderful thing and a scary thing, and we’re finding it’s a whole new avenue for crooks.”

Bedford Detective Matt Fleming said as the Postal Service steps up its efforts in combatting illegal schemes, often calling on the Secret Service or FBI, the criminals respond.

“The U.S. Postal Service is pulling mail that appears to be a scam and flagging it,” he said. “Now, people from Nigeria and other countries are sending from other locations because they know the mail is routed through New York. They might send the mail from France, Canada or somewhere else.”

Fleming said the typical amount of stolen money can be as high as $5,000 or $6,000, and that venues such as eBay, Craigslist and general posting newsgroups can be hotbeds of criminal activity.

While these schemes seem invincible – police are hard pressed to prosecute criminals outside of their jurisdiction – there are some commonsense ways for people to defend themselves, Davison said.

“Go ahead and deposit the check, and if you think it might be fraudulent, tell the bank,” he said. “The important thing is to wait. If the check bounces, the worst thing that can happen is that you get a bad check fee, which nobody likes either, but that’s better than being taken for thousands of dollars.”

Davison said rarely will people get in trouble for waiting a few days for a check to clear.

“That’s the way to do business. When it comes to money, there are people out there that want to cheat you,” he said. “Nobody is going to come after you for a few days, especially if they wrote you a bad check.”

Additionally, Davison said, banks will not contact people over the phone to solicit valuable account information, such as passwords, Social Security numbers or PINs.

“They already know your information,” he said. “If they start asking you questions, ask them to read your information back to you, but don’t play games with them.”