That's hardly a newsworthy headline, as much consumer fraud comes from our international neighbor to the north. But we saw a scam this week that we haven't seen before: a letter, supposedly from Canada's Department of Justice, tells a Missouri consumer she's been an ID theft victim, she's entitled to lots of money, and she needs to pay court costs of $2000+. Notice some things in the letter:

• The logo at top right is almost exactly accurate - though they're missing an accent mark over the French words. You can compare it to the real Canadian Justice Dept logo.
• LOTS of typos, grammar errors, etc. Scam mailings are notorious for this.
• Signed by someone who is not the current Attorney General of Canada. Signed by someone whose signature apparently looks nothing like his name...
• That crest at the bottom right looks like the authentic arms of Canada (scroll to the bottom of this page).

Goes to show you anyone can make letterhead look official - either in the mail or e-mail.

PS: I called the number and it's disconnected, a recording of a nice Canadian lady informed me.