UNIVERSAL REWARDS AND TRUST CHECK SENT IN ORDER TO OBTAIN MY PERSONAL CHECKING ACCOUNT INFORMATION AND IDENTITY TORONTO Ontario

They already had your name and address -- they sent you a letter.
They might indeed be getting their list of potential victims from those "free draw" entry boxes at the mall, or hacking into the VIP customer database that those stores might have. But it's easier to just use any online directory -- phone books, for example. The social engineering relies on the odds that most people have shopped at one of those places.

What they wanted was for you to withdraw money from your bank account and give it to them. Western Union / MoneyMart makes it easy for them to collect without there being any way to trace them.

The check will turn out to be bad -- completely fake, stolen check with forged signature, or drawn on a closed account. When the check is return unfunded, it leaves a hole in the victims bank account. The crook has already collected from Western Union and can never be found.

They weren't after your banking information, identity theft or anything like that, just the cash. But if you gave them any information on the phone, they might sell it to someone who would be interested in borrowing your identity. If you gave them bank account information on the phone -- telling them where you were going to deposit the check for instance -- then close that account, certainly.

You can close your borders to immigrants, but this scam uses telephone, the mail, and Western Union / Moneymart. You'd have to close them off too.
Safety will come only when people know about the tricks of con artists and stop falling victim.

They already had your name and address -- they sent you a letter.
They might indeed be getting their list of potential victims from those "free draw" entry boxes at the mall, or hacking into the VIP customer database that those stores might have. But it's easier to just use any online directory -- phone books, for example. The social engineering relies on the odds that most people have shopped at one of those places.

What they wanted was for you to withdraw money from your bank account and give it to them. Western Union / MoneyMart makes it easy for them to collect without there being any way to trace them.

The check will turn out to be bad -- completely fake, stolen check with forged signature, or drawn on a closed account. When the check is return unfunded, it leaves a hole in the victims bank account. The crook has already collected from Western Union and can never be found.

They weren't after your banking information, identity theft or anything like that, just the cash. But if you gave them any information on the phone, they might sell it to someone who would be interested in borrowing your identity. If you gave them bank account information on the phone -- telling them where you were going to deposit the check for instance -- then close that account, certainly.

You can close your borders to immigrants, but this scam uses telephone, the mail, and Western Union / Moneymart. You'd have to close them off too.
Safety will come only when people know about the tricks of con artists and stop falling victim.