The Scam Alert Blog

Though this is not technically an Internet scam, we at The Scam Alert have just now been the recipients of a scam attempt through regular, or snail, mail. We thought this would be a good chance to pass this on. Most have received these types of letters/emails before, please do not fall for it.

The letter we received said that we had been selected from our entry in the “North American Sweepstakes” and our share of the “lotto” was $65,000. There was a check enclosed that appears to be legitimate in the amount of $2,300. It says this is the first installment and is the
“tax penalty portion” of the jackpot we won. It goes on to congratulate us on our good fortune. The check is drawn on a New Jersey bank (which I won’t name here as they are most likely not part of the scam but potential victims as well), but the letter has a Nova Scotia return
address. It also has the name of our “account handler” and their phone number so we can contact them and handle the transfer of the money to us.

How the scam says it works: Basically, I am to deposit the check and then send that amount, or it may be a slightly lower amount, to the “handler” to pay for the taxes and penalties portion of the jackpot. The “handler” then does his part freeing up our portion of the jackpot
and a check for $65,000 (minus the $2,300) is overnighted to us.

How it really works: I deposit the $2,300 check in my account. I send them the tax and penalty fee. A week to ten days later my bank contacts me that the original $2,300 check is not good, there are either no funds or it is a bogus check/account. I have already sent off my check or money order to the “handler” and, you guessed it, no check for $62,700
ever shows up. My bank has credited my account for the bogus check and I am out the money that I sent off to the “handler”.

For purely informational purposes, I decided to call the phone number of our “account handler”. The first four tries I could get no answer. Finally someone answered and they explained to me that I need to deposit the check and send in $2,000 to cover the taxes and penalties fee.
Never intending to do this, but having way too much fun talking to this person I asked if there were any other alternatives. I asked why the lottery company didn’t just subtract the taxes and liabilities fees from my winning amount and then send me a check for $62,700 and send a check for $2,300 to the account handler. His response to this was that the fees vary depending on the country where the winner is located. I then proceeded to talk to him for about 15 minutes about what I was going to do with my winnings and how much this meant to my family. I told him about the new swimming pool we would be putting in and how excited the
kids were. I was really having fun at this point. I then asked him if I could just endorse the $2,300 check over to him and send that to him through the mail. He said this wouldn’t work as I would be overpaying the fees by $300 and that money should be mine. I told him I didn’t
mind at all as this would allow me to get my payment to him faster, thus getting my larger check faster. He then said that this wasn’t “legal” (oh, I loved him using that word) as the payment for the taxes and fees had to come from me, not the lottery company. I then thanked him for his time and told him I would get the payment right out to him.

The next day I took the letter, the check, and the envelope it came in and brought it my local branch of the United States Post Office where they will investigate if for mail fraud.

I urge anyone who receives this type of letter or email to not respond or follow through with their steps. Remember, common sense states that if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. Plus, how can you win a lottery that you never signed up for?