Tucson Citizen.com
Better Business Bureau Consumer Alert -

Company Promises $5,000 in Exchange for Your Signature

by on Jan. 19, 2010, under Life, phishing, Tips

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is alerting consumers to a scam involving a promise of thousands of dollars in exchange for answering a simple math question and a signature.

A Newington, Connecticut man told BBB he knew it was a scam the moment he read the letter from UBI Payment Services’ “Accounting Department” in Singapore. The letter informed him that he was “guaranteed to receive $5000.00” if he signed the document, solved a primary school-level math puzzle and mailed the form to an address in Australia. Instead, he turned over the document and return-address envelope to BBB.

According to Reliability Reports on file at several Better Business Bureau offices, UBI Payment Services has an “F” rating because of concerns with the industry in which it operates, insufficient information about how long the business has been operating and lack of background information.  In addition, the company reportedly does business under three dozen different names.

BBB President Kim States, says this scam is sweeping the nation.

“This company first came to the attention of other Better Business Bureau offices in the fall of 2008.  Consumers across the country have received similar mailings, and now Arizona’s consumers are being targeted.”

It appears the scammers are after the recipients’ signatures, which, combined with the correct name and address in the mailings, may be used for identity theft.

Consumers are strongly advised to proceed cautiously before responding to this type of mailing. UBI Payment Services does business under at least 35 different names.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Life, phishing, Tips. Tags for this post: , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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  • Joan

    I received a letter just yesterday from this UBI company stating they will send you $5,000 for your signature and solving a simple math question. Not only did I receive one letter but 2 on the same day, one from Australia and one from Singapore. I knew that it was a scam but thought, well I am just going online to check to make sure it really was a scam because with this economy, who could not use that extra money. Well, I am glad I did because it is a scam! Nothing in this life is free and everyone needs to remember that!
    My wish is that law enforcement would be able to get ahold of the persons responsible for this scam and thousands of others that bilk people out of millions of dollars every year! It is the biggest unsolved crime and I am sure there are thousands upon thousands of people working behind these scams in the dark, to bilk hard working people out of their money that need to be caught, arrested and made to repay each and every dollar that was bilked from honest people!
    I would also like to know why it is in the US, especially with the high alert for National Security, that our postal service allows this mail to reach people’s mail boxes! Why is this not stopped? Where are victims rights? Unfortunately, 3 years ago, when I did not know of these scams was sent a check for over $4,000 which I put into CD’s, paid off bills and thought my troubles were over for a while…that was until a week later, after my bank had initially told me that the check was valid, I was called by the bank supervisor to let me know that the check was fradulent and I would be responsible of repaying back each and every dime to the bank that they had given me. Well, they waived the fee for almost $2,000 in CD’s I had put aside for my grandsons but I was responsible for repaying almost $3,000 in money I had used to pay bills off. Needless to say, it took all of my savings to repay that back and I have never recovered since and money I thought would be there for my grandsons future was not there anymore which devastated me. I filed a police report and notified the US Postal service, and left a letter on Rip Off Report, but nothing was ever done, the postal service did not even acknowledge my what so ever and it was never investigated so I am out of that money forever! These people are the worst of the worse criminals and need to be caught and stopped!!!!!

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