PARKE COUNTY, Ind – Parke County Sheriff Justin Cole says that they have seen a new scam in the area.

Police say that the most recent scams involve a letter and cashier’s check being sent to local residents.

The letter is soliciting an “undercover shopper”. In this case, the letter asks you to deposit a check included with the letter in your account. In the most recent case the check was for $2,380. The letter then wants you to go into a local store, such as Wal-Mart or Target and make a purchase for $80 for the undercover shopper portion, and then purchase 20 $100 iTunes gift cards. The remaining $300 is to be pocketed by you as commission for their work.

The check that you deposited was a fake and by the time you figure this out you have already sent the iTunes cards that you purchased with your money back.

Since the check was a fake, there is no commission and if you didn’t have enough of your own money in your account you could get hit with bounced check fees for those cards your purchased.

Cole provided pictures that you can see on our website of what these fake documents look like.

If you receive something like this, contact police.

Look at the pictures, police have highlighted the areas of importance to recognize as signs of fraud. Particularly, the portion concerning the purchase of the iTunes gift cards. Also on the bottom of the letter, the printed name is different than the signed name, also a good indicator of fraud. Scammers such as this will also use logos or brands that the general public are familiar with, further giving indication that this may be legitimate.

In this case, the person recognized the possibility of fraud and gave the information to the Parke County Sheriff’s Office for review.