Have our Canadian cousins gotten too wily, or something? Seems so, since propagators of a Great White North-originated mail scam decided to shift to the south, narrowing their targets in on Ada, recently.

According to a story in the Ada Evening News, a Pontotoc County resident recently received a UPS envelope sporting his name. Inside? With no explanation, a cashier's check for $4,850.

Hot diggity!
A few days later, the check was in the mail- again. This time, one for $4,975. A letter hailed the recipient as a North American/European sweepstakes winner (wahoo!) and charged him to cash the check immediately. But not for himself-  for $4,030 in taxes, which should be sent back to sender.

Wah ... hmm. Wouldn't a contest spanning two continents have a greater payout than five grand? Apparently the scammers are hoping recipients don't think too much about that- or anything else. Sheriff Pete Peterson said the FBI reported similar letters already had been filtering into Ardmore, according to the story.
"It's going on all over in our area down here," he said, warning residents to be skeptical of large checks they receive in the mail from unknown sources (this would not include your tax rebate, dear Chicken-Fried News readers).

"If it looks too good to be true, then it's probably not any good," he said.

Bucky's wondering why the perpetrators are using the postal service. Haven't they heard about e-mail?

Oh ... so that's why they want the $4,030.

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