July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Scam file keeps growing (12/15/04)
Dear Reader
By By Jack Ronald-
My Resource Lynx file keeps growing.
Resource Lynx, you may remember, is the name of the scam artist outfit which has been using the newspaper’s street address in Portland as its phony “bricks and mortar” headquarters.
In reality, I don’t have a clue where the crooks are located. But they’re not here, despite the fact that newspaper ads having been running in various corners of the country listing our Main Street address.
The ads themselves are a scam, with stolen credit card numbers being used or massive bills run up. One newspaper in California is now owed more than $11,000 by the scam artists, who are — I repeat — not here.
The second scam involves the suckers the ad attracts. Preying on folks struggling with high debt, the folks at Resource Lynx gather up as much personal data as they can, including — but of course — more credit card numbers.
For those who are truly gullible, the scammers have a heck of a deal. They’ll provide tens of thousands of dollars of credit at a low interest rate. There’s just one catch. The sucker has to send the scammer money first.
Those funds are transferred via money order to a postal drop box in Ontario somewhere.
How do I know all this? Because the mail keeps ending up on my desk and my file keeps growing.
The authorities were alerted a long time ago. The Hoosier State Press Association, which earlier found Resource Lynx using the address of a vacant lot next to the newspaper in Elwood, has passed word along to other state press associations across America. It also contacted the Indiana Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau, and other scam-stopper groups. I also contacted the Portland Police Department and the county prosecutor’s office and let the Portland Area Chamber of Commerce know what’s up.
But still the mail comes in. We’ve heard from newspapers and delivered the bad news that they’ve been victimized. We’ve heard from people who were almost suckered and used the Internet and some detective work to check out the street address; they’ve saved themselves some real headaches. Unfortunately, we’ve also heard from people who were foolish enough to send money orders to Ontario.
The strangest, however, has been our contact with the Better Business Bureau of Northeastern Indiana.
When telling a newspaper ad manager in the Toledo area that he’d been scammed, I learned that his paper had checked out Resource Lynx with the BBB in Fort Wayne. The company had gotten a clean bill of health, even though it’s a racket.
A couple of days later, our mail brought a letter from the BBB’s Fort Wayne office. Aha, I thought, they’re on the trail of the crooks. No such luck. It was an invitation for Resource Lynx to join the Better Business Bureau.
I got on the phone, figuring I’d set them straight and let them know that they need to screen their prospective members a little better.
After playing phone tag for two days, I finally spoke with a woman named Marjorie and explained what was up, that our address had been lifted by scammers hoping to establish credibility. She thanked me and said she’d get on the case. In the meanwhile, she asked, could I send her copies of some of the materials I’d been building in my file.
No problem, I said. I photocopied a letter from a woman in Texas who had been ripped off when Resource Lynx was using the Elwood address, the ad insertion order the scammers were sending via fax, tear sheets of the ads as they appeared in other papers, invoices from papers dumb enough to give them credit, and an e-mail from HSPA’s general counsel warning publishers about the scam.
Silly me. I thought that might make a difference.
On Friday, I had opened a bulky envelope from the BBB in Fort Wayne. It was addressed to Resource Lynx at our Main Street location.
“Dear Sir or Madam,” it began. “As an aid to you in preserving customer goodwill and confidence, we are sending you this statement by one of your customers.”
It was a form letter from somebody in “Dispute Resolution Services.”
And what was attached to it? You guessed it: All of the material I had sent to the BBB myself just a week before.
At this rate, the scammers will never be stopped.
And my file will just keep getting bigger.[[In-content Ad]]
Resource Lynx, you may remember, is the name of the scam artist outfit which has been using the newspaper’s street address in Portland as its phony “bricks and mortar” headquarters.
In reality, I don’t have a clue where the crooks are located. But they’re not here, despite the fact that newspaper ads having been running in various corners of the country listing our Main Street address.
The ads themselves are a scam, with stolen credit card numbers being used or massive bills run up. One newspaper in California is now owed more than $11,000 by the scam artists, who are — I repeat — not here.
The second scam involves the suckers the ad attracts. Preying on folks struggling with high debt, the folks at Resource Lynx gather up as much personal data as they can, including — but of course — more credit card numbers.
For those who are truly gullible, the scammers have a heck of a deal. They’ll provide tens of thousands of dollars of credit at a low interest rate. There’s just one catch. The sucker has to send the scammer money first.
Those funds are transferred via money order to a postal drop box in Ontario somewhere.
How do I know all this? Because the mail keeps ending up on my desk and my file keeps growing.
The authorities were alerted a long time ago. The Hoosier State Press Association, which earlier found Resource Lynx using the address of a vacant lot next to the newspaper in Elwood, has passed word along to other state press associations across America. It also contacted the Indiana Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau, and other scam-stopper groups. I also contacted the Portland Police Department and the county prosecutor’s office and let the Portland Area Chamber of Commerce know what’s up.
But still the mail comes in. We’ve heard from newspapers and delivered the bad news that they’ve been victimized. We’ve heard from people who were almost suckered and used the Internet and some detective work to check out the street address; they’ve saved themselves some real headaches. Unfortunately, we’ve also heard from people who were foolish enough to send money orders to Ontario.
The strangest, however, has been our contact with the Better Business Bureau of Northeastern Indiana.
When telling a newspaper ad manager in the Toledo area that he’d been scammed, I learned that his paper had checked out Resource Lynx with the BBB in Fort Wayne. The company had gotten a clean bill of health, even though it’s a racket.
A couple of days later, our mail brought a letter from the BBB’s Fort Wayne office. Aha, I thought, they’re on the trail of the crooks. No such luck. It was an invitation for Resource Lynx to join the Better Business Bureau.
I got on the phone, figuring I’d set them straight and let them know that they need to screen their prospective members a little better.
After playing phone tag for two days, I finally spoke with a woman named Marjorie and explained what was up, that our address had been lifted by scammers hoping to establish credibility. She thanked me and said she’d get on the case. In the meanwhile, she asked, could I send her copies of some of the materials I’d been building in my file.
No problem, I said. I photocopied a letter from a woman in Texas who had been ripped off when Resource Lynx was using the Elwood address, the ad insertion order the scammers were sending via fax, tear sheets of the ads as they appeared in other papers, invoices from papers dumb enough to give them credit, and an e-mail from HSPA’s general counsel warning publishers about the scam.
Silly me. I thought that might make a difference.
On Friday, I had opened a bulky envelope from the BBB in Fort Wayne. It was addressed to Resource Lynx at our Main Street location.
“Dear Sir or Madam,” it began. “As an aid to you in preserving customer goodwill and confidence, we are sending you this statement by one of your customers.”
It was a form letter from somebody in “Dispute Resolution Services.”
And what was attached to it? You guessed it: All of the material I had sent to the BBB myself just a week before.
At this rate, the scammers will never be stopped.
And my file will just keep getting bigger.[[In-content Ad]]
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