Immigrant Money

Some if not most of the new immigrants to US originally have the (false?) notion that all Americans are completely honest in their business practices and that majority if not all of any bad business activities had long been eradicated. This may partially be due to the other (false?) notion that we have – that most Americans are rich and as such they don’t need to lie, cheat or curb the law in any way to try to make more money.
Unfortunately because of these same notions immigrants can be much more prone to falling prey to Scams designed to take advantage of their inexperience with the American way of life. Too often this results in a loss of some (or lots) of your hard-earned money – which in limited cases can be rather devastating for one’s financial future.

What is a “Scam”?

- noun
1.  A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle
- verb
1.  Deprive of by deceit; to defraud; swindle

“A confidence trick or confidence game, also known as a con, scam, swindle, grift, bunko, flim flam, or scheme, is an attempt to swindle a person or people (known as the “mark” or sometimes “griftee”) which involves gaining his or her confidence.”

The above entry is per Wikipedia’s current article on scams – see more information here.

…enough definitions for now I think.

So here is the latest scam that reached my postal mailbox a week ago:

An official looking letter from National Deed Service, Inc., which suggested that I should “Order a Certified Copy of Recorded Deed for your house for the low fee of $59.50”

I’m including a scanned copy of the original letter here (link), so you know what to look for (and avoid paying once recognized hopefully…).
One of the things that grabbed my attention while reading through the junk was the line: “Due to the large number of transactions, this will be your only notice of our service.” Immediately all kinds of flags and warning signals went up in my head.
Couple of minutes later a quick Google search revealed this “Service” for what it is – a clever scam to sell you something which you already have OR can get for free / very small charge from your local county office.

Fighting Back a Scam

The best way to fight back a scam is not to fall for one. I will not go in detail on which agencies to contact if you DO fall for a scam and pay money upfront for services you never receive – the net is full of such advice. But here is something you can do even if you didn’t fall for the scam this time.

Once a scamming letter is recognized for what it truly is most people will promptly discard the letter in their recycle bin (taking care to remove any personal identification information from such documents just in case…). If you want to go a step further – here is how to fight back such unwanted mailings:

- Cut out the front of the prepaid postage envelope (which probably is included with most scams), showing the sent-to address and the printout that states Business Reply Mail, “Postage will be paid by addressee” and  “No Postage Necessary If Mailed in the United States”
- Tape this prepaid postage “label” to a parcel filled up with anything your little prankster heart desires – like rocks, bricks, old socks, junk mail etc. non-lethal objects and drop off this little package of heavy lovin’ at the nearest US Postal Services drop-off box.

It will surely get the Scamming Company attention and if enough people do this it will also affect their bottom line, hopefully putting them out of business. A nice side effect of such action is that this will provide couple of extra dollars fee to the Postal Office Service. I think about this as taking money from the bad guys and giving it to the good ones.

Hey – at least the thought of this “Business Reply” on your part will give you a chuckle every time you remember the situation .