Scam Alert - Please Read

[Captain Crunch]

My wife received an official looking letter in the mail today, informing her that she was a winner in the DE-Lotto Switzerland Sweepstakes, and that her share of the prize pool was $155,000.00. Included with the letter was check made out in her name, drawn on the Florida Capital Bank, in the amount of $3,850.00.

The letter stated that the check is for the payment of applicable government taxes on the winnings. The letter cautions that the check should not be used until she contacts the claim agent (Bob Smith, yeah, right) to claim her prize.

This is an obvious scam, and I'll wager it's directed primarily towards senior citizens (we are seniors). Everything about this scam is so official looking, the letterhead, the check, the come-on. At first glance, it all appears to be legitimate. Of course, there is no return address on the envelope, which is postmarked in Canada, with a Canadian stamp.

I intend to turn this over to the Postal Inspectors.

Needless to say, don't fall for this flim-flam. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...................

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[dr_cmg]

Terry, you are going to cash the check, right? There really is a Florida Capital Bank. You might be able via the net to find out if the check is good. Hey, at least that way you get something for your trouble. With $3850 you could buy that Barrett .50 BMG you've always wanted.

[QKShooter]

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck....believe me it's a duck.

My Father got about 150 lbs total of those things from all over the world.
All different "OFFICIAL" variations and configurations.
Some even arriving by Express Mail.
No exaggeration on the amount of them. He was on the international scammer hot sheets.
We turned boxes upon boxes of them over to the Postal Inspectors. My Dad was getting on average 20 or 30 of them a week.
Great that your turning it over. You might help prevent some folks from getting scammed.
Those folks are heartless.
They try to hook Senior Citizens that are in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's & Dementia and then attempt to drain them dry.
If you were to fill that out and mail it in (sometimes they ask for a small amt of money) then it gets followed up by phone calls (usually from Canada or Australia) and that's when they attempt to get a Social Security # and a bank account # - They need that in order to "deposit" the winnings. Of course what they end up doing is milking the account and even opening new credit card accounts and maxing them out. May they all rot in Hell.

[Shadowsbane]

Terry, you are going to cash the check, right? There really is a Florida Capital Bank. You might be able via the net to find out if the check is good. Hey, at least that way you get something for your trouble. With $3850 you could buy that Barrett .50 BMG you've always wanted.

Was listening to Clark Howard just today about a very similar scam.


It can take up to 6 months (typically 4-6 weeks though) for a fake check to be realized as fake. That means you can cash it and it will clear, but sometime down the road they will take the money back out because it wasn't real.

That method is preferred by scam artist because it seems all the more real. "Just send us 25% of what the check is for after it clears your bank to cover the opperational cost" or some bs like that.

[CopperKnight]

Shadowsbane is right. International checks can take a long time to clear once they go through all the banks they have to be routed through to get the transaction completed. Even calling the bank the check is written on isn't good enough. The bad guys often use valid accounts (stolen information) to route their ruse through.

[rodc13]

These scams just keep coming around. Now, excuse me, I've got to get packing. I'm off to Nigeria to collect big bucks from the son of their former finance minister . . .

[P95Carry]

I have dreamed up some ''nice'' retribution for these scammers - but it is not I am sure too legal ..... so dreams remain as only that - dreams!

Sadly even round my area there are odd cases of the gullible elderly getting taken for a (expensive) ride. Some people have no integrity, no heart and are driven entirely by greed - there is rumored to be a very hot place around somewhere - it is where they belong.

[mark555]

You mean all those e-mails I keep getting form the nice lawyers in the UK to help find charities to spend the rich lord’s bequests are fraudulent? Say it isn’t so, why I am just shocked by that news.

[mech1369dlw]

These scams just keep coming around. Now, excuse me, I've got to get packing. I'm off to Nigeria to collect big bucks from the son of their former finance minister . . .

You can't get that money. Why, you ask. I just got back from Nigeria, they gave all the money to me. I an off to a city in the Congo next week to collect some more. NOT!!

[TN_Mike]

We have gotten similar checks in the mail.

The latest one was informing my wife that she was selected as a secret shopper. All she had to do was take the $4,000 check and deposit it, then take $3,000 dollars and transfer it to a third party using Western Union. The idea was that she was testing the services of Western Union.

But the real deal is that the check is a counterfeit check. We called the back that was printed on the check and they told us it was not real and to contact the Postal Inspectors (which we did). They also explained that the scam goes like this: You deposit the check and withdraw $3000 and wire it to them. In the next day or two the check is found to be phony by your bank when they present it to the back listed on the check for payment. So, your bank now wants its $3000 back but is has already been wired to the "third party" which is actually the scammer. You are now on the hook for a phony check and $3000 that you withdrew on the phony check.

If it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Simple as that.

[Tom G]

It's amazeing how many people still fall for this con game. Guess everbody wants to win something.

[Black Knight]

Another problem is that there may be some very fine writing on the back. This writing may have you responsible for untold amounts. Some might say "By endorsing this check you agree to use our service for one year at the fee of $100.00 a month" or similar. Just hand it over to the Postal Inspection Service. If it is real and not a scam they will return it, if it is a scam (it sure looks, sounds and smells like one) they can go after them for it. By promising funds they may also bring in the U.S. Secret Service since they are charged with investigating currency crimes.

[Captain Crunch]

Another problem is that there may be some very fine writing on the back. This writing may have you responsible for untold amounts. Some might say "By endorsing this check you agree to use our service for one year at the fee of $100.00 a month" or similar. Just hand it over to the Postal Inspection Service. If it is real and not a scam they will return it, if it is a scam (it sure looks, sounds and smells like one) they can go after them for it. By promising funds they may also bring in the U.S. Secret Service since they are charged with investigating currency crimes.

Thanks for the information, but I'm not looking for advice here. I know this is a scam and I am not falling for it. I posted this alert to the members who are senior citizens (like me) & to the younger members who may have parents or grandparents to keep them from being victimized by this, or similar, scams.

[Baby Hulk]

I LOVE the Nigerian scam (give us your bank account and we'll wire the funds into it.) because I e-mail them back and say "I've opened a new account for the money. E-mail me back and I'll give you the account number.

[A1C Lickey]

Terry, you are going to cash the check, right? There really is a Florida Capital Bank. You might be able via the net to find out if the check is good. Hey, at least that way you get something for your trouble. With $3850 you could buy that Barrett .50 BMG you've always wanted.

The $3850 check is supposed to cover the taxes that you're supposed to pay on the $155,000 that you just won. The scam is you sign that check and send it in and they cash it against your account and you never see the $155,000.