In this scam, criminals target homeless individuals by luring them with work and then coercing them to cash a fake check.
OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Ottawa County deputies are looking into a potential homeless labor scam.
In this scam, criminals target homeless individuals by luring them with work and then coercing them to cash a fake check.
Two men out of Grand Rapids may have fallen victim to the scam.
A Michigan woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, reached out to 13 ON YOUR SIDE to make the community aware of what happened to her son.
She says he was homeless and staying at Mel Trotter Ministries, a shelter in downtown Grand Rapids, where he was approached by two men back in September.
“These guys said, ‘Does anyone want to work?’ and he said, ‘yeah!’ and he took off with them.”
They did some construction work in Cadillac and afterwards, the two men offered her son $900 out of a $6000 check once he cashed it at a bank.
The two men said they couldn’t cash it themselves because they didn’t have their ID.
“They had pretty much threatened if he didn’t do this something would happen either to myself…
