(WWJ) – Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown is sounding the alarm after county residents have reported getting fake mailings from scammers posing as county officials trying to take their money.
Over the last several weeks several residents contacted the Oakland County Register of Deeds office after getting the scam mail, which Brown describes as "quite shady."
In an attempted guise of representing Oakland County and tax collection offices, the scammers will send a postcard through the mail with the heading “County Deed Records” and “Home Warranty Division.”
“The postcard threatens a ‘lapse in coverage’ and contains language clearly designed to agitate recipients,” a press release from Brown’s office says. “Emblazoned with terms like ‘Property Lienholder,’ ‘Final Notice’ and ‘Registration is Required,’ recipients are urged to call a 1-800 telephone number. The notice is a sales marketing ploy for home warranty policies priced at thousands of dollars annually.”
A second mailing is emblazoned with the heading “Third Notice” and references a supposed state tax lien and offers a “target settlement amount.” Like the other example, these mailers contain urgent threats of “property loss, a bank levy, wage garnishment, or all of the above” and urge recipients to call a 1-800 number to “help us to help you satisfy this debt.”
Brown says it’s crucial residents know these mailings are not authorized by any department pf the Oakland County government.
Brown told WWJ’s Jon Hewett she investigated by calling the number herself and trying to find out who is behind the scam.
“I called one of the phone numbers, and they answered the phone, ‘tax office,’” She said. “I said, I’m sorry, who did I call? I wrote this number on a post-it note that I needed to call today, but I forgot who this is. Who is this?’”
But they would never answer her questions, only asking her if she’d received something in the mail.
Brown said these mailers are the just the latest example of how “scammers and fraudsters are getting more and more savvy in the ways they attempt to bait and mislead homeowners.”
Her office says the best course of action is to dispose of these the same way you would any other piece of junk mail.
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