Port Hope Police are issuing a warning to residents to be aware of an online scam that is hitting Facebook accounts. A Port Hope woman received a message on her account indicating that she had won $50,000.00 USD. The email came from someone purporting to be a “Linda MATT”. She also received an email from one of her contacts indicating they had won and already received the money.
The woman was asked to wire $550 USD for tax liability reduction and delivery fees. The woman attempted to do this but a Western Union representative refused to do it and advised her it was most likely as scam. Police are advising residents to be wary of such scams and if it sounds to go to be true it usually is a scam. Police also advised never to release personal information over the internet to people who are unknown. In this case the fraudster was savvy and was able to mimic one of the lady’s Facebook contacts indicating that they had won the money and already received their prize.
