Sullivan County Sheriff Mike Schiff has issued an urgent alert directed to all senior citizens who reside in Sullivan County, YWN has learned.

Scam artists operating out of Canada are targeting senior citizens in Sullivan County with a recent barrage of phony mailings designed to separate seniors from their money. All of the fraudulent mailings arrive with a realistic looking check in an amount between $3,000 and $5,000 dollars and a set of instructions. All of the scams require the victim to deposit the check and then at some point send money via Western Union or Money Gram. It takes several days before the victim’s bank finds out that the check is fake.  By that time, the money has been retrieved by the crooks from Western Union and they are long gone.

“All of the recent fraudulent mailings show return addresses in the United States such as Illinois and Florida”, said Sheriff Mike Schiff. “But a closer inspection of the envelope reveals that the mailings are actually originating in Canada due to their Canadian postage stamp and postal cancellation mark. The instructions typically contained in the fraudulent letters, require the victim to call a telephone number in the 514 area code which is located in the Canadian province of Quebec”, said the Sheriff.

The mailings started arriving in Sullivan County in early July, with citizens notifying the Sheriff’s Office of them last week. A preliminary analysis by Sheriff’s Detectives leads the Sheriff to believe that the scam artists are using a mailing list made up primarily of senior citizens. “They are targeting the most vulnerable segment of our community”, said the Sheriff. “By operating outside of the United States it makes it that more difficult for us to investigate these crimes”, he said.

The good news said the Sheriff, is that this type of fraud is easy to combat. “If you get a check in the mail from someone you don’t know, be suspicious”’ said the Sheriff. “If they want you to deposit the check and then send money via Western Union or Money Gram, that is the red flag, it is a scam, period!”.

The Sheriff urges anyone with a question to call the Sheriff’s Senior Citizen Hotline at 845-807-0159.

(YWN Sullivan County News Desk)