Two similar Internet scams were reported by separate women who had put items up for sale in the classifieds section of www.fortwayne.com, police reports said.

In the first case, a woman had advertised an exercise bike for sale at $350. She was contacted by another woman who offered to send extra money on top of the selling price if she would send the difference — minus a $40 handling fee — to the other woman's brother in England, an Allen County Sheriff's Department report said.

Monday, the woman received an envelope with a return address of a man in Fresno, Calif. Inside was a letter and a $3,000 check made out to the Omni Houston Hotel in Houston, Texas. The letter asked for the woman to cash the check immediately and send the money to an address in Amsterdam, Holland.