Money order tampering investigation yields more clues, additional victims

Friday, December 12, 2008
By KATHY FAIRCHILD/Staff writer

It appears now that the two stories we published recently about altered money orders are not just local stories.

Research on the Web and elsewhere indicates this may be a nationwide problem -- one with, so far, no resolution for the people involved.

Early this week, we contacted Citizen's Bank in Providence, R.I., to see if they could shed any light on the issue. All three of the money orders sent to AT&T by local residents were cashed at this bank.

Citizen's Bank Vice President Mike Jones, director of media relations, said he hadn't heard of the problem, but during our conversation found a story on the Web from The Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette that reported the same fraud. Jones is investigating and said he would report his findings.

AT&T representative Leslie Collins, with whom we've been working for the last two weeks, said Monday, Dec. 8, that she'd heard of another incident in Texas.

Both the Michigan and Texas money orders were also cashed at Citizen's Bank in Providence.

Moneygram Internation-al's public relations contact, Linda Mitchell, said her company is "unaware" of any problem with this particular scam, although a lower-level customer service representative we spoke to last week said it's a "known problem."

In the normal course of events, an AT&T customer purchases a money order, fills in the "Payee" space with "AT&T" and sends it through the mail in the telephone company's provided envelope. When the envelope reaches AT&T, it processes the money order and Moneygram pays AT&T the money the customer initially paid to the business that sold them the money order.

What's happening instead is that at some point in the process the payee on the money order is altered to read "RAT & TRAP," and the money order is then presented to Citizen's Bank for payment. When the customers receive the next month's phone bill, there is no record of their payment.

In order to receive a refund, the customer contacts Moneygram for a copy of the cashed money order and pays a nonrefundable fee of $15 to get it.

If the customer wishes to proceed with a refund, Moneygram then charges an additional nonrefundable fee of $25 to pursue collection of the money, which, according to Moneygram's documentation, takes from three to six months, with no guarantee of success.

For large dollar amounts, the total of $40 may seem small for the chance of recovery; when the money order is for a relatively small amount, as is the case with two of the local fraud victims, a fee of $40 is a lot of money. In one case here, the money order is for just over $50.

AT&T has been very cooperative in addressing the problem, removing late fees from all three of the local accounts and allowing continued service for the victims until the situation can be resolved.

Our investigation continues. If you or someone you know has had this problem, please contact local law enforcement first, and then bring your documents to The Marshall Democrat-News at 121 N. Lafayette Ave., Marshall.

You can also contact us at the email address below or by phone at 660-886-2233.

Contact Kathy Fairchild at marshallhealth@socket.net