Be leery of ‘foreign’ e-mail lotteries

Newport Beach police are asking the public to remain wary of e-mails from overseas that claim you’ve won money.

Officials said residents have reported more solicitations online lately for the Nigerian bank schemes, claims people have won a foreign lottery or confusion over online sales.

The Nigerian bank scheme simply won’t die. In this scam, the victim will receive an e-mail claiming they’ll get money from a “Nigerian official” if they can only help them free it from the bank. If they just pay a fee to get it out, they’ll get a hefty chunk of cash when the money is accessible, the scam claims. The e-mails come from people trying to steal your money.

In the foreign lottery ploy, an e-mail will claim you won a foreign lottery and just need to pay overseas fees and taxes to get your money.

Again, this is just a way for criminals to steal your cash, police said.

In the third scheme, a person will contact you if you’re selling something online and pretend to be interested in it. They’ll send you a fake, foreign check for more money than the product is offered for and ask you to send back the difference.

If you think you’ve responded to a cross-border scam, file a complaint at econsumer.gov, a joint-effort by 20 countries in the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network.

— Joseph Serna