Resident Falls Victim to Email Scam

Caledonia police say a resident fell for an email scam and had $1,800 withdrawn out of his bank account.

According to a press release from the CPD, on March 27, a resident filed a police report saying he'd received an email from someone claiming to be a hiring manager for Monster Energy drink. The email asked if the man would be interested in putting Monster logo stickers on his vehicle.

When the man agreed to put the stickers on his car, a check for $1,800 was sent to him via FedEx from Advantage Federal Credit Union from an account that was later found to not exist. After the man got the check, he was told to send $1,454 of it to a graphic artist so the artist could come to the man's home to afix the logos to the man's vehicle.

The man deposited the money and sent the amount as instructed to the artist. A few days later, the man was notified by his bank that the check bounced and $1,800 was taken out of his account.

Caledonia police Sgt. Brian Wall writes in the statement that residents should be wary of any communication from a "company" that asks for banking information.

"(Be on the lookout for) any scam involving 'money' in some form like a check, cashier’s check, money order ect. you have to deposit in your personal account and then withdraw so that you can wire it someplace else," he said.

Western Union is often used as part of these scams, and residents should also beward fake sweepstakes and secret shoppers. A version of this scam is the "car wrap," the release reads.

"Wrapping" refers to process of wrapping adverstising and/or branding decals around a car, including on the windows.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation urges all residents to report these scam emails to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov.