Fraudsters a creative, persistent bunch

A Salt Lake City man contacted me recently to say he had received a call from Jamaica, offering the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Salt Lake man had somehow won $450,000, and the Jamaican wanted to send him the money. All he needed to do was send $450 by Western Union to the Jamaican — a processing fee, you see — and the big money would be on its way to Utah!

Our wise local friend knew this was a scam. He decided he wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity, even when the cheeky Jamaican called back and urged him to leave his ailing wife at home with a sandwich so he could get that money wired as quickly as possible.

After talking to this man, I decided it was time to once again warn readers about some of the scams that are making the rounds these days. As always, there are plenty of people out there looking for new ways to part you from your money.

One scam e-mail appears to come from a friend who reports getting mugged at his hotel while on vacation in the United Kingdom. All of his cash and credit cards were stolen, he writes, but "luckily for us, we still have our passports with us.

"We've been to the embassy and the police here, but they're not responding to the issue effectively, and our flight leaves in few hours from now, but we're having problems settling the hotel bills, and the hotel manager won't let us check out until we settle the bill. Well I need you to loan me 980 Pound ... will def refund it as soon as we arrive back. I PROMISE!"

The recipient is then instructed to wire the money via Western Union and send this "freaked out" friend the details as soon as the transfer is done.

Needless to say, this e-mail, too, is a fraud. On the Western Union website, www.westernunion.com, the company warns of several variations of such frauds and offers tips to make sure people don't get taken. Those tips include:

 "Remember, Western Union does not recommend using a money transfer service to send money to someone you don't know or whose identity you can't verify."

 "Remember that sending money using a money transfer service is like handing over cash. Western Union is not associated with the lender or business in question and therefore can't guarantee the receipt or quality of the goods or services you are purchasing."

 And, most importantly, "As always, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

That final caution rings true for any offer that may come your way — even the e-mail from a 21-year-old only child in the Ivory Coast whose parents died and whose uncles conspired to sell his father's properties to a foreign businessman.