Laurie Miller was a founding member of the huge '80s glam girl group Expos é, so when she got free money in the mail the other day, she thought it might be some very obscure residual payment.
The unexpected windfall for the Miami native: $1,932.24, in two money orders made out to her for $966.12 each.
"I truly believe that you can manifest things and make things happen and I've definitely been doing a lot of positive affirmations and I thought look it works, I made it happen!" Miller said yesterday.
The bank teller told Miller that depositing the money was the only option, then wait to see if they were real.
So it was little surprise to Miller that three weeks later, a letter concluded they were counterfeit, meaning Miller was out the $1,900.
"And why me? And how'd they get my address?" Miller said. The envelope had no instructions, no letter, nothing.
"It's a scam," said Blanca Alvarez, a US Postal Inspector.
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Alvarez said scammers usually convince the victim to deposit and then send some of the cash back to the scammers. But in this case, the bumbling crook or crooks forgot the whole point of sending the money orders.
"Maybe he made a mistake, he forgot to put the letter or his employee forgot to put the letter in with the counterfeit money order," Alvarez said. "They do that sometimes."
