Mail Fraud Hits Piermont Resident: Fake Arkansas Company Seeks Money

A frequent but deceiving mail scam hit Piermont last week—a stranger from Arkansas attempted to wheedle thousands of dollars out of a resident.

"It's a common scam we're seeing now," explained Michael O'Shea, Piermont's chief of police. O'Shea said the matter was brought to his attention when a Piermont resident brought the suspicious letter to the ; a Kenneth Smith Company from Hot Springs, AR wrote saying the resident had won money, but first needed to pay a $2,950 tax.

"If it seems too good to be true, then it is," O'Shea said of the scam. "Luckily, the resident didn't take action and [instead] alerted authorities."

O'Shea noted residents have taken the bait in the past, and it is often difficult to track down the money or hucksters.

"We end up alerting the United State Postal Inspector or Secret Service since it's often an international matter," he said.

Similar frauds are frequent around Rockland, explained Brian Holihan, a detective with Piermont Police. In Haverstraw, scam artists will approach strangers with a "winning" lottery ticket and offer to sell it; in Clarkstown, con men have phoned strangers posing as police and said they need bail money for a jailed relative.

Like Nyack Patch on Facebook. Follow Nyack Patch on Twitter.