Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office warns residents of fake check scam

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. (KIEM) — A warning from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. It’s about a scam that involves getting a letter in the mail that says you’ve been selected to participate in a survey of your local post office branch. The letter includes a bogus cashier’s check.

If you follow the letter’s instructions and try to deposit the check, it will bounce and the amount will be deducted from your account. Officials say this kind of scam turns up in different forms, but the results are always the same. The victim gets taken for thousands of dollars.

They say scammers will pretend to be someone you trust like a family member, a company you do business with, or a government agency. A woman in Humboldt County recently received one of these letters in the mail.