If it seems too good to be true, it’s probably not true.

That’s the advice from Oak Harbor resident Bill Lineberger, one of many island residents targeted in a nationwide scam involving money wires. He didn’t fall for it, but he said he can understand why some people may have.

“It looks legal and the whole bit. It’s very good,” he said of the fake check his daughter received in the mail.

Unfortunately, several Oak Harbor residents did fall victim to the scam artists and lost, collectively, nearly $80,000.

“They were shocked and very embarrassed,” said Detective Mike Bailey of the Oak Harbor Police Office.

In response, Detectives Bailey and Carl Seim are trying to warn the community, particularly senior citizens, about the widespread fraud. They will be speaking at the Senior Center and other venues in the community.

Seim said there’s one simple rule to spot the scams: “If they are asking you to send money to receive money, then you know that it’s a fraud.”

The two detectives looked into the swindles, but they say it’s extremely unlikely that the victims will ever get their money back or that the perpetrators will be caught.

The scams are either through the mail or by phone. In either case, the victims are usually asked to wire money to an account, usually in a big city in another state or country, in exchange for a promise of reimbursement.

In the mail scam, the victim receives an official-looking letter in the mail along with a very realistic business check. The victim is instructed to deposit the check into his or her bank account and then wire the money — minus a small portion for the victim to keep — to a faraway place.

When the victim finds out that the check is bogus, he or she has already wired the money to the shyster and it’s too late.

“By the time we trace it, the money is long gone,” Bailey said.

Bailey said the scam artists probably mail out mass quantities of the letters, just hoping to get a few people to fall for it.

The phone scams are very similar, but are done over the phone by professional-sounding crooks who strike up a conversation with the victims. They talk the trusting people into wiring or sending money with promises of a big return, a grand prize or other types of reimbursement. They may ask for credit card, bank account or Social Security information.

The phone-scam artists tend to hit “an easy mark” over and over again during a two-week period.

“They go after them at different angles,” Seim said. “The victims are bombarded with calls.”

The detectives say there are countless versions of the fraud.

The letter Lineberger received invited him to join the “Secret Shoppers” in order to test the quality of service at a “Money Gram” at any Wal-Mart location. It included a bogus “customer satisfaction evaluation” to fill out.

Another letter that the police collected states that the recipient won a big prize, but he or she needs to wire money to receive it. Detective Seim even called a phone number on the bogus letters and spoke to the swindler, pretending to be a naive

citizen. When Seim questioned the man about the logic, he got angry and eventually hung up on him.

The detectives said the scammers are equal-opportunity fleecers who rip off people of all ages, though they are more likely to target elderly people for the phone call scams. Older, perhaps lonelier, people are more willing to talk on the phone for lengths of time and may be more trusting.

Bailey said two older Oak Harbor women were ripped off over the phone. They lost more than $70,000 total. A third, 30-something woman lost about $7,000 to an over-the-phone flimflammer.

The detectives say they’ve also received numerous complaints from residents who’ve received scams in the mail. They don’t know if anyone has fallen for the con, but they suspect there are those who don’t want to come forward. It’s humiliating to be swindled.

Bailey said he’s contacted the FBI about the scams. Agency officials suggested that victims report such incidents over the internet at www.ic3.gov. It’s a complaint center about cybercrime, which is probably at the root of these cases.

Bailey and Seim are available to talk to community groups about these wire-transfer fraud cases or the much larger problem of identity theft. You can reach Bailey at 279-4622 or Seim at 279-4621.