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December 21, 2006
Home Trust Inc. - SCAM!! READ!
In visiting a friend, I watched as he opened a letter from a company - Home Trust Inc. - that issued him a 'legit' check for $3,000 and some change. He said, "This can't be real" and so I proceeded to check things out.
The check looks viable. There's the mention of 'grant' on it. There are symbols from all sorts of businesses that we recognize on the letter as participants of this sweepstakes. There is nothing that states a condition required to be met if the check is cashed. The letter states that this is a beginning check that will, once cashed and once the appropriate people are contact, allow the recipient (award winner) to receive the rest of his $48,000. It was even sent to his home address.
Here's where it raised a few questions:
1. The letter said that it was a grant, and yet it also said that my friend was a 'winner'.
2. The letter said it was a 'final notice' but my friend had never received an initial notice.
I went online and did a search through Google and came up with nothing. I said, why don't you call them in the morning and ask if they have requirements for the money, etc? If they require you to do something additional, sign up for something, give something, then you know it's a scam, right?
He called this morning and asked for the contact person who was on the letter. This person spoke English, but it was heavily accented and from an Indian decent. (Indian, not Native American.) After a bit they got disconnected, but not before the man was saying that there is a processing fee that my friend would have to submit first.
I went online again, this time at the BBB, and looked up Home Trust Inc.
The nit and grit of it is that this company fraudulently claims to be part of an actual business, and the check is issued in their name. You go to the bank, you sign the check, you get the money, and then you send the person who's in charge of the scam money for 'processing and legal fees'. In the meantime, the real company says, "Why is this check being cashed? We never issued this check." And then takes the funds back, because they're not legally yours to begin with.
In the meantime, the scammer has not only $3,100 of your money, but also your name, address, and bank account information.
The worst part is, that we're so trained to seeing scams through email that getting one through snail mail is relatively unheard of anymore, at least in my book. Given that, the legitimate look and feel of the check, and the holiday spirit/seasons, this can be some really icky scam that gets lots of people.
My friend - the girlfriend of my other friend - is a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, and they'll be writing up a story on this, but in the meantime and because most of you don't live in Alaska, pass this story on. This company has a history of scamming people, moving locals as they get 'found out', and $3,100 is nothing to joke about.
Posted by Kelli Little at December 21, 2006 09:39 AM