When you think of a scam alert you may often think of just counterfeit money but in Letcher County, they are experiencing that problem along with fake checks issued to real banks and the circulation of ‘motion picture’ money.

Sheriff Mickey Stines of the Letcher County Sheriff’s department says these types of scams are nothing new but in this capacity, it can cause a huge problem.

“Not that large amount that was from a different scam, this is the first one I have received this year,” says Sheriff Stines.

Hoping this will serve as a warning to the community. “A good way to know is if you should not be receiving monies or that large amount of monies; that should throw up a red flag immediately.”

Unfortunately, Stines says they receive calls of these scams at least once a month.

If you receive a check in the mail it will be accompanied by a letter.

“They will ask you to cash. They will give you a number to call, once you call they give you instructions on what you need to do,” said Stines.

Asking you to cash the check yet send back a certain amount of money to the sender.

Sometimes it’s a small amount of $500 to $600. I’ve seen as much as half of the check.”

Once the bank receives the check and it bounces, the scam begins.

“So you have sent them cash money that you have to come back up with to pay the bank back,” he said.

Stines also urging the community to be on the lookout for counterfeit or ‘motion picture’ money.

“Some of these bills you get you know they are fake, some of them are pretty good. Motion picture money is not illegal to possess it but once you try to use it to pay a debt or you stop and got gas, then it becomes a crime in the state of Kentucky,” he said.

Believing the circulation of these types of bills are coming from increased drug trafficking across the state of Kentucky

“That is how it gets back into circulation. It is used in the drug trade a lot. You know a drug dealer is not going to call us and say ‘Hey Johnny came up here and bought a pound of meth and gave me $10,000 in fake bills.‘”

The moral of the story, watch your money and know where it’s coming from.