Dear John: Last year I was the victim of a scam. Someone stole my FedEx account number and sent out US postal orders to people, instructing them to cash the orders and send money to a certain address. I was getting letters from people saying they had sent money to the address that accompanied the order.
FedEx was not easy to work with, but eventually canceled my account (after I asked several times), and American Express removed the hundreds of dollars of charges.
I had to file a police report, but of course the scam goes on. B.M.
Dear B.M.: Thanks for the information.
The bottom line: If someone sends you money you are not expecting, be suspicious.
If it sounds too good to be true — you know the rest.
Dear John: For some reason, the cost of diesel fuel hasn't come down nearly as much as the price of gasoline. I assume the same is true for home heating oil.
Out here near Lansing, Mich., last year, gasoline was in the $3.75-to-$4-a-gallon range. Now we're at just about $2.50.
While I haven't kept as close track of diesel, it was also in that $3.75-to-$4 range and now is still about $3.50.
Maybe you could ask your gurus why.
I'm guessing that a big part of the downward pressure is the leaky embargoes on purchasing fuel from a bunch of places, like Russia (more or less), Syria, Iraq (kind of), Kurdistan, etc.
So they're sliding it out in the gray market at much lower prices. Why not diesel? P.P.
Dear P.P.: As most drivers in this country know, gasoline prices have dropped about $1 a gallon since the summer. That's because, quite simply, the demand for gasoline around the world has fallen sharply due to the bad economy.
GasBuddy.com says that diesel fuel has fallen only about one-third as much. And it's mainly because of supply-and-demand issues. Over the past few years, the use of diesel fuel around the world has grown from a low base at the same time gasoline was declining.
And US refineries are shipping out about 1.5 million barrels a day of distillate fuel (which includes diesel), while producing only 4.7 million barrels.
"So, in effect, 32 percent of all distillate fuel leaves the US, bound for other areas, like South America and China," says GasBuddy.
Plus, oil drillers in the Midwest use diesel. So demand in the US has also been relatively strong. There have also been refinery problems that have caused some spikes in the price of diesel fuel, but these should clear up soon.
Dear John: Last year, when we went to file our quarterly tax return in October, the accountant could not e-file, as someone had already filed [using our name].
For over 20 years, we have filed in October and asked that the credits of usually over $100,000 be applied to the next tax year. Kind of a pattern here, don't you think?
Just as background, starting in 2008-09, someone, or multiple someones, stole my husband's identity and tried to change our address and mobile number on two different accounts at two different banks. And they tried to cash a doctored check for more than $9,000 at yet another bank. The woman ran out when questioned.
And they tried to get information about colleges and health care.
My husband and I have fraud alerts, and his credit record has PIN protection so that no one can open new accounts in his name.
We were supposed to get a PIN number from the Internal Revenue Service so no one could fraudulently file our tax return again.
But in October 2014, our accountant went to file our 2013 return, and, of course, someone had already filed one.
He had also never been given a PIN number for us.
We then had to file fraud affidavits and our returns again by paper.
It makes me crazy to think how much of a refund the culprits were able to steal from us taxpayers.
But I'm also wondering if the IRS was so involved with Lois Lerner and going after Republicans that they fell down on their own fraud-watch duties. L.W.
Dear L.W.: We talked about this and there is nothing you want me to do about this situation. You only wanted me to publish this letter so that others might be aware of one of the scams going on.
This is clearly a problem that needs to be fixed by the IRS.
I started writing about this scam years ago, before it had gotten so much publicity. One of the problems is that the IRS and state tax agencies try to send out refunds as quickly as possible. This is a benefit to taxpayers, who obviously want their refund quickly.
But the crooks are usually faster in filing than the legitimate taxpayer.
Clearly the IRS should have followed through with you. And let's hope that after IRS representatives read this letter, they will.
Good luck.
Send your questions to Dear John, The New York Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.
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