By RANDY ERICKSON | Editor
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\n Like most people using e-mail, Judith Erickson had seen her share of Nigerian financial scams and knew not to even give them the time of day. But this scam was different. It claimed to offer a chance to make easy money working at home as an accounts receivable agent for Arcadia-based Ashley Furniture, the largest furniture maker and retailer in the country.
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\nAll Erickson had to do was first accept delivery by United Parcel Service of a cashier\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s check or money order. Then she would deposit the Ashley Furniture customer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s payment in her account and then send a check of her own to the Ashley payment center, less 10 percent as payment for her services.<\/p>\n
Erickson sent in her application information in mid-August and in a couple of weeks received her first UPS mailer. It contained a check for $6,830.<\/p>\n
Of course, Erickson wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about to cash it. She was collecting evidence to help authorities bring down the swindlers, whom she was convinced were bilking unsuspecting Americans and using the money to buy arms to use in terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was really playing with it because I really thought they were trying to get money for arms,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Erickson, an Onalaska resident known to jazz fans as singer Judi K. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re tempting as heck, and I can imagine older people especially getting involved.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
If she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d fallen for it as the scam artists planned, Erickson would have been out nearly $6,200, with little or no hope of catching the crooks. And some people have been taken worse.<\/p>\n
Janet Jenkins, a former Onalaska resident who now heads the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Trade and Consumer Protection Division, said she has had no reports of this Ashley Furniture variant of a well-established scam. But she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surprised that scam artists would use the Ashley Furniture name to try to lend an aura of legitimacy to the scam.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The scam itself has been around for a long time, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve certainly heard of it with other connections,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jenkins said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People lose a lot of money in scams like this.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
In fact, Jenkins knows of one case where a person got taken for $195,000. In that case, the checks were delivered much like they were to Erickson. But to get the person on the hook for big money, the scam artist actually sent checks that were good at first, with gradually larger checks leading up to a very big check that was no good.<\/p>\n
A lot of these e-mail scams originate overseas, which makes it extremely hard for authorities to bring the scam artists to justice, Jenkins said.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In order to have any hope of catching the criminals, you really need the help of federal authorities, the state authorities and a lot of times the international authorities,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jenkins said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Obviously, you need to trace the e-mails. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very difficult because by the time you trace them, they may be shut down and the criminals may be using different addresses.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Even if nobody has fallen for the Ashley Furniture scam, which surfaced a couple months ago, it still has at least one victim \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Ashley Furniture. Not only does the scam drag the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name down just by association, it also has created a lot of work for the company in trying to get the word out about the scam.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We spend time on it everyday,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dwain Jansson, Ashley Furniture\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vice president of information technology. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We certainly are spending money to try to get it to stop, but we think other companies are dealing with it as well. … So far nobody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gotten hurt yet. Of course, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re very concerned about it because our good name is involved.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The company has added a set of frequently asked questions pertaining to the scam on its Web site and has set up a special e-mail account \u00e2\u20ac\u201d fraudreply@ashleyfurniture.com \u00e2\u20ac\u201d where people can report cases or get more information.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want to make sure that people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jansson said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And we want them to know what they can do about it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The biggest thing people can do to avoid falling prey to a scam is be skeptical and pay attention to details. For example, Jansson said, look closely at the e-mail addresses from which suspicious offers originate. Any legitimate e-mail from Ashley Furniture would end in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153@ashleyfurniture.com,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but the scam artists set up accounts with Yahoo, Google\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gmail or America Online that look sort of legitimate at first glance but aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n
People also can get clues from the text of the scam come-on e-mails. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of one e-mail sent to Erickson after the scam artists shipped her first check:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This will be your first assigment with the company and implore you to take this seriouse and also pls be sure to send me an e-mail as soon as you recieve the payment so that i could give you further instructions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
No legitimate business would dare send out communications with the spelling and grammatical errors included in this message.<\/p>\n
Common sense is undoubtedly the best weapon against being taken by a scam. Erickson realized right away that there was no legitimate reason why a company, especially one as well-established as Ashley Furniture, would need to recruit people to accept checks for the company and that it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a bit of sense to pay somebody 10 percent if they did.<\/p>\n
Jenkins has a mantra that people should keep in mind at all times to avoid being taken advantage of: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or 786-6812.<\/p>\n
Identity theft scams a growing concern<\/p>\n
One of biggest problems Janet Jenkins deals with as head of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s consumer protection division is identity theft.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a problem, in fact, that the Office of Privacy Protection was created under the consumer protection division to try to battle the growing problem.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We actually have a specific Web site \u00e2\u20ac\u201d privacy.wi.gov \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that talks all about identity theft,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Jenkins, who has headed the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Trade and Consumer Protection Division since 2004.<\/p>\n
People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s information can be harvested online, either through scams designed to get people to willingly submit information or by enterprising criminals mining different Web sites to put together all the facts about a person they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d need to submit a credit application, for example.<\/p>\n
People also need to be wary when paying at a restaurant with a credit or debit card. Many restaurants have customers pay at the table, with the waiter or waitress taking the customer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s credit card out of sight for processing.<\/p>\n
Jenkins said that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an opportunity for unscrupulous restaurant employees \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the vast minority, she emphasized \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to use a device called a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153skimmer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to electronically harvest the card\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s information. Those card numbers could then be passed on to others for charging illegal purchases.<\/p>\n
There have even been cases, Jenkins said, where a waiter would bring the credit-card processing machine to the table, then drop the card and while bending down to pick it up swipe it through a skimmer strapped to his leg.<\/p>\n
Of course, Jenkins said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the overwhelming majority of wait staff are perfectly wonderful law-abiding citizens who aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doing this.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Just in case, though, people should be aware that they could be on the hook for all illegal charges to their debit card, Jenkins said, whereas there is limited liability with credit cards.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Maybe the best thing to do is pay cash,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nobody can screw around with the cash.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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