Fax scammers hit Indiana stealing IDs with DOT claim

Scammers claiming to be from the U.S. Department of Transportation are faxing official-looking letters to potential victims in Indiana, hoping to steal personal information, the state's attorney general warns.

Faxes appear with what looks like official letterhead from the "Procurement Office" in Washington D.C. The letter, which has a number of grammatical and punctuation errors, asks the recipient to fax a "financial information release form" to a D.C.-area number, or else be declared ineligible for procurement. "The DOT would not ask this," says Indiana AG Greg Zoeller in a written statement. A similar letter sent to Connecticut businesses last year appears here.

The fake faxes can be detected by the names of the "procurement officers" signed at the bottom: "Dan Jacobs," "Lisa Johnson," "Jason Scarlett," "Julie P. Wenzel," "Bradley K. Walsh," "Jeffery Steinberg," and "Julie P. Weynel." Identity theft scams can come by fax, postal and e-mail. The IRS warned in February its logo was taken in a similar scheme using e-mail.