The City of Niles would like to alert residents in the community that scammers are targeting residents in Michigan and other states through the U.S. Mail service.
These scammers are using a return address of 333 N. Second St. in Niles, which is the address for Niles City Hall.
The Niles City Police Department has received complaints and inquiries from as far away as Arizona regarding suspect mail being received from the Niles City Hall address.
In many cases the scam operates like this: A resident receives mail addressed to them from a named person who they do not know. The mail has a return address of 333 N. Second St. in Niles. The mail contains a check made out to the resident with instructions to include depositing the check into their account. Afterwards, the scam advises residents to withdraw the bulk of the money and wire it to one or two locations. The instructions say that the residents are to keep the balance of the money as their payment for “evaluating the money transfer service locations”, i.e. Western Union, Money Gram, Walmart to Walmart, etc.
The Niles Police Department urges residents to never deposit unexpected checks from persons they do not know into their bank accounts.
Although these checks seem real, they are not good checks. In many cases the culprits are using actual company names on the checks to make you think they are coming from a legitimate company.
In addition, Niles Police Chief James Millin advised resident to never transfer or wire money to people you do not personally know and never wire money in response to a phone call or unsolicited mail.