Watch For Money Order Scam

DAYTON - On Tuesday, a Columbia County woman received three U.S. Postal Service money orders totaling well over $2,500 in the mail.

She became suspicious - she hadn't been expecting any money through the mail - and brought them to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, which consulted with Loren Jensen, the postmaster in Dayton.

Jensen knew right away they were fakes.

"It's just such an unfortunately thing," Jensen said in a telephone interview. "I've seen them show up from time to time in the area."

Jensen, who has managed the Dayton Post Office for four years, said this is likely the third or fourth time he's come across fake postal service money orders in his time at the local office.

In his experience, the counterfeit money orders are made out for between $900 and just under $1,000 and typically arrive in a priority or express mail envelope.

"They try to make it look as official as possible," he said. "For years money orders have been hard to copy. They change the format and look of them every year or so to keep ahead of the counterfeiters."

But a group that U.S. Postal Service investigators believe are working out of Nigeria have managed it.

The local recipient of these particular fake money orders said she received an envelope bearing postage from the Royal Postal Service. How the scam works, Jensen said, is that when the unsuspecting victim deposits the money orders in his or her bank account, the scam artists are able to obtain the victim's account number and drain all funds from the account.

"By the time the bank determines that the money or-

(Continued from Page 1) ders are no good, the victim's finances are gone," according to a statement released from the sheriff's office Tuesday.

The sheriff's office urged that anyone who receives checks, bank drafts, money orders or other such documents unsolicited in the mail report the incident immediately. Jensen said post office staff in both Dayton and Waitsburg could advise people who were concerned about the authenticity of postal service money orders.

For more information or to report possible scams, call the sheriff's office at 509- 382-2518.