STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More Local News

• Cecelia Weeks, one of Goodland’s first residents, leaves Florida
• MICA survey says islanders give thumbs up for police, fire
• South Heathwood Drive temporarily closed Friday

Share and Enjoy [?]

It’s not exactly times of easy money, perhaps that’s why people across the country are receiving fake checks and hoping they are real.

Marco Community Bank is listed as the name of the bank on checks being sent out to thousands across the country who receive the bogus checks for being mysteriously chosen as a “secret shopper.”

MCB received about 80 calls regarding the checks in the first day just over a week ago, said MCB branch manager Colette Heft.

Thousands of checks have turned up across the country in the 10 days.

Heft said there appears to be two rounds of checks circulating, one dated June 4 and the other June 11.

The scams don’t affect MCB, but if a consumer’s bank clears the check, the consumer is ultimately responsible.

“It has nothing to do with any of the banks, the consumers will get hurt in the long run,” Heft said.

With difficult economic times, Heft explained that people are receiving a check for $4,800 with instructions to keep some and send some back to Consumers View Incorporated Shopping Business Solutions based in Ontario. The letter accompanying the check says the recipient has been chosen as a “secret shopper” and more checks will follow.

When consumers call the phone number on the check to verify it, the phone is answered “Marco Community Bank,” however it is not the correct number.

Heft said the checks look very authentic but two things should tip people off.

“It’s not often you get free money, first of all,” she said.

Bankers are often being tipped off by another aspect of the checks.

“Why would a company in Canada be using a bank on Marco?” Heft added.

Thousands of the checks have come in, but Heft said MCB is not cashing them. The first call was from New York, then more calls streamed in from as far away as California and Hawaii and as close as Naples.

The man from Naples came into the bank, Heft said, and notified them that he believed it was a scam.

Many who received them were not on to the scam so quickly and Heft said it’s in part because people are “desperate” and also because the checks looked so real.

The check looks like it was issued by Marco Community Bank. It includes the name, routing number, location, and even a phone number that seems real, but it’s not.

People who have deposited the bogus checks are forced to cover the $4,800 when they bounce.

Heft said if people receive a check from any bank that they are not expecting they should go to the bank’s Web site and verify the information.

“Don’t trust what’s written on the check,” she said, adding “better yet, let your bank verify it.”

Heft said Marco Community Bank is not the only bank targeted by the scammers going by the name “Consumers View Incorporated Shopping Business Solutions” out of Canada.

“Another bank called us and said ‘good luck. We’ve been their victim also.”

Federal authorities have been contacted, and the FBI, CIA, FDIC as well as local, state and other federal agencies are looking to track down the scam artists.