Officials from the North Bend Police Department are warning citizens against cashing checks they may receive in the mail from a random lottery.

Chief Steve Scibelli said he is aware of at least three cases in which individuals received checks for about $3,000, and believes there may be more. The checks come with a letter saying the recipient has won a random lottery that was held in London and should deposit the money into a bank account. The “winner” is then asked to write a check to the company's clearance agent for clearance fees for the same amount.

“And then once they do that, they are promised to receive a check for $114,000,” Scibelli said, adding that he first became aware of this particular scam about two weeks ago. “Of course the check that they are being sent has no funds with it. It's an (insufficient) funds check and so they're responsible for that $3,000. Then the bank comes back on the victim to cover the cost of the check that was sent.”

Scibelli said victims' checks typically go to untraceable post office boxes in far-off states, so that by the time local law enforcement gets wind of the scam, the culprits already have cleared out.

“It's very difficult for law enforcement to work these cases, because they always involve jurisdictions that are far away, and we don't have the resources to go to Texas,” Scibelli said.

Anyone who receives such a packet in the mail is asked to call local law enforcement and do not deposit the check. The chief said he is trying to recruit the help of the FBI or other agency with greater resources to deal with the scam.

“If it's too good to be true, it is. It's a scam. It's a fraud,” Scibelli said. “The more reports we get, the more leverage we have with the federal government that they need to take some action on this to protect local citizens.”