Recently, the Dewitt Police Department has seen a rise in citizens who have been selling items on the internet and have received fraudulent checks as payments, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. These checks are written for accounts that do not actually exist. Police advise online sellers do their homework: check that the person’s business is legitimate and consider using a service such as PayPal that offers some degree of guarantee.
DeWitt police offer some tips to help avoid being scammed:
✓Deal locally, face-to-face — follow this one rule and avoid 99 percent of scam attempts.
✓Never wire funds (e.g. Western Union) — anyone who asks you to is a scammer.
✓Don’t accept cashier/certified checks or money orders — banks cash fakes, then hold you responsible.
✓Never give out financial info (bank account, social security, PayPal account, etc).
✓Do not rent or purchase sight-unseen — that amazing “deal” may not exist.
For further information, or to speak with someone in the police department, call the administrative phone number at 449-3640 or email [email protected]. All calls for police service should be made to 911.
