The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is warning people to be cautious about scams that are targeting Stars and Stripes advertisers and readers.

OSI officials said that in the last week two people who advertised vehicles for sale in the classified section were contacted by someone who said he or she would send the seller a check for more than the asking price.

The seller was told to keep 10 percent of the extra money and to forward the remaining funds to a company to ship the vehicle.

It appears that the company did not exist, and the money would have likely ended up in the scam artist’s hands, OSI Special Agent Robert Davis said.

OSI was notified about the scam Tuesday, Davis said.

In another case reported to OSI on Tuesday, a man who responded to a job advertisement sent in a resume and was sent a check about week later with instructions to cash it, keep 10 percent and send the remainder to a Nigerian address, Davis said.

That man reached the person listed under the contact information on the check and learned it was written fraudulently.

"At this point, nobody has lost any money of the three cases we know [of] because people spotted something fishy," Davis said. "These types of scams have been going on a long time."

The scams aren’t new, nor unusual, said Sean Adams, Stars and Stripes business development supervisor.

Adams pointed out that the paper has disclaimers online and in the print edition’s classifieds to alert readers about scams. The online disclaimer also has a link to a Stars and Stripes story about scams.

"Our readers are very cognizant of what is going on," Adams said.

"This is unfortunately a serious issue with our readers. I’m glad our readers are able to identify these as scams."

How would one know if they are a target of a scam or not? Davis has some simple advice: "Things that sound too good to be true probably are."