NEW YORK — The state government is warning people about a new letter scam.
The New York State Department of State and the Division of Consumer Protection is reporting a letter scam that impersonated the Secretary of State. The fraudulent letters have the heading “Executive Letter of Guarantee” and claims people will receive a large payment held by the Department of State to settle debts involved in the sale of timeshares.
The letter uses a forged signature of New York Secretary of State Rossana Rosado and illegally uses the New York State seal, which are not genuine and were not issued by the state.
The letter has been referred to the Attorney General's Office for investigation. Anyone who has received one of these letters should report it to the Attorney General's Office at the following address: Real Estate Enforcement Unit, NY State Office of the Attorney General, 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005.
The following tips have been provided to help protect against scams:
- Exercise caution with all communications you receive, including those that appear to be from a trusted entity.
- Inspect the sender’s information to confirm the message was generated from a legitimate source – be suspicious if the reply to address is different from the sending address.
- Independently verify the entity’s contact information through an online search engine.
- Consider calling the sender at a known good number, not listed within the communication, to confirm they sent the communication.
- Reminder that the state government would never partner with for profit businesses to solicit money
