And Yet Another Scam????

I received a call a week or so ago from someone who identified himself and told me he was looking for some of the children of an individual in this area because the Government had some money they were holding and he wanted to give it to them. Having seen a lot of spams on the Internet, I was a little suspicious, so told the guy that I would like him to send me his request through the mail as I didn't have that information off the top of my head. He hemmed and hawed and told me, all he wanted was their names and telephone number and I again told him, this is my address, just send me what you are looking for and I will see if I can find out for you. I did have the guys name and a caller ID phone number that was in St. Johnsbury, but in a female's name.

About a week later, I did receive a letter from him in the mail and with the names removed, since I don't want to wrongly accuse someone, this is the letter:

"I am trying to locate Relatives of XXXX X XXXXXXX that lived in Cambridge Vt. He is owed money by the Government. If you know who the children are please send me their names and phone numbers.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, Financial Benefits conducts computer searches of the various government databases looking for people who are owed money by government agencies. When we find individuals who are owed money, we contact them to obtain permission to work on their behalf to recover these monies. It costs them nothing out of the pocket. We work strictly on a contingency basis.

As I mentioned, one of the country's many government agencies is presently holding $1707.64 in an account belonging to him."

I then scanned the letter and emailed the Attorney General's Office with a copy of the scanned letter and received the following information:

"Dear Mr. Raymond,

Thank you for contacting us regarding the letter you received. While we do not have any complaints against a company by the name listed in the letter you received, I would encourage you to approach such an unsolicited communication with a great deal of caution. The letter is not unlike a number of scams currently in operation. I cannot speak for the legitimacy of this company, or its claims. However, if a government agency did, in fact hold funds, you could find that information on your own (with some modicum of effort).

Please feel free to contact our office to discuss this further if you have additional questions.

Best Regards,
Jason

Jason M. Duquette-Hoffman, M.S., Outreach Professional Vermont Attorney General's Office Consumer Assistance Program 103B Morrill Hall, UVM Burlington, VT 05405 (800) 649-2424 (802) 656-3183 (802) 656-1423 FAX"

As it sits not, have not contacted the individual involved, and will probably wait until after Thanksgiving, but make sure they are aware that they are probably going to be scammed out of some money, maybe in fees for getting it for them, or just some fees for trying to get it.