Carrie sent an email to all of her friends about this phony traffic ticket she found in her mailbox at work.

The envelope had the return address of the "Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento" 

The Great Seal of California looked, uh, realistic.

To Whom it May Concern: A traffic violation is being issued against you by the state of California, County of Sacramento. This is a letter of notification of a speeding violation incident that occurred in the month of October. The Superior Court of California Traffic division has found you responsible for operating your vehicle above the normal speed limit of 55 mph. Our Traffic division secret service patrol used an accurate speed velocity monitor and a hidden surveillance highway camera that detected your accurate speed which was beyond the posted speed limit. In order for you to resolve this over speeding violation and to prevent this case for being on your DMV driving record, a bail amount of $315.00 is being issued against you. Please read and follow the instructions below to avoid consequences and suspension matters.

Warning: Failure to comply with the above order immediately may result in the issuance of a warrant against you or a temporary suspension of your drivers license. In the state of California, a suspended drivers license restricts an individual from driving a motor vehicle. Please make money order or cashiers check to the PROCESS CENTER before your deadline. Under the jurisdiction of the government, WE DO NOT ACCEPT PERSONAL CHECKS. Please use the envelope enclosed.

Please mail the bail amount of $315.00 before December 03, 2004 to the:

PROCESS CENTER
2097 E. WASHINGTON ST. 1E -173
COLTON, CALIFORNIA 92324

Carrie spotted this fraud immediately and called the traffic department of the courthouse to verify that this is a scam.

So, this is a warning, not for you, but for your sister Paulette, who always falls for this kind of thing. I won't even fathom a guess as to how many laws this kind of fraud breaks.

The scary thing about this, for me, is that all the ham-fisted errors in the letter and the printing could have been fixed. That could make for a much harder-to-spot version of this same scam.

The letter included a return envelope to the "Process Center", with a handwritten "Case #1775A"

If anyone reading this knows what resides at the PROCESS CENTER address: 2097 E. WASHINGTON ST. 1E -173
COLTON, CALIFORNIA 92324, I'd love to hear about it. A photo would also be much appreciated.

 Thanks!

-Rob Cockerham

Thanks to Milton, Ian, Thomas, James, John, Valarie, Ryan Darren, Vidar, Gregory, Rachel, jonathan, Nigel, Danny, Ben, Ken, John, Stephan, Steven, Andrew, Gary, Michael, Sputnik, Christopher, Jean Paul, Spanky, Jud, Marcus, Mark, Mike, Fred, Emily, Meredith, ysgdhio, Zach, Jason, Eric, Will, Victor, Eric, Ken, John, Scott, Anthony, Margaret, Bob, Michael, Kenny, Bob, Michael, Nico, Jeff, Tim, F.E., Anne, Mark, Jeff, Hugh, Bftlspk, Zack, Willie, Jim, Mike, Jason, Gary, Angus, Charles, Rupert and Terry for helping track down credit information, neighbors, satellite photos, aerial photos and ex-lovers of the scam address, but it was Matthew Ford who was first to go and take photos of A1 Postal, at 2097 E. Washington Street, Suite 1E.

Another Update!

Brian Nilsen wrote to let me know that the San Bernardino Press Enterprise posted a story online about this scam, and the arrest of the 20-something year-old perpetrator.

The SBPE requires an email address and password to log-in, for example:     email:    XYPOKHJKCSBW@spammotel.com    and      password: pedotcom