You have just won $ 250,000 in US currency!!!

Yep,. thats what a letter said that I received in the mail today.
I walked into the house this afternoon and my wife said,. Hey we won $250,000
Well you maybe could imagine my look of skepticism after she said all we needed
to do is deposit the enclosed check of $3980.00 into our checking account,.yep,.
thats when the first red flag went up..
It stated in the letter that I must call the number in the listed in order to receive the
rest of the $250,000 and that the $3980.00 was the check to cover the taxes.
But all I needed to do was deposit the check of $3980.00 into my account
and call them when I did so.. I asked the guy on the other end how I can verify this is valid
and he said that because I am a shopper at Walmart and Home Depot I can ask them to
give me the verification. So then he repeated his statement that all I needed to do was put
the enclosed check into my checking account and call him back when it is done,.

Ahh,. I dont think so,.
So I looked up the info in the letter on line and it showed a long list of people that so
coincidentally received the same letter,. asking them to do the same thing,.
basically allowing this scam to collect your personal info.
800notes.com...
What a bummer though,. could have used some spending money,.

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy

The first red flag was when you read you had to deposit money - and not that you actually received the letter in the first place?

If it's too good to be true...

I get spam email like this all the time, i wish it was real but i just ignore it

my uncle actually fell for this and thought he had won 15 million dollars, so he sent them 1000 us dollars and guess what?

reply to post by LadySkadi
Ya ,. I dont pay attention to that baloney,. so I humored myself to read it.
Also it was asking me to deposit the check already enclosed.

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy


God i really hate those letters

You should post the phone number. Then we can all call saying we deposited the money... now what?.. and just mess with them. Please post the number.
Anyone that calls, make sure your number is blocked so they don't add it to the database.

Originally posted by SnakeShot
You should post the phone number. Then we can all call saying we deposited the money... now what?.. and just mess with them. Please post the number.
Anyone that calls, make sure your number is blocked so they don't add it to the database.

edit on 11-1-2011 by SnakeShot because: (no reason given)

the number is on the link.
And that sound like a great Idea

some of these letters have disclaimers worded by expertly trained lawyers that its not even illegal, even when you deposit your money into an account.

i must have won over 25 millions dollars over the years, thanks to ed mcmahn and the publishers clearing house sweepstakes.

i wonder what would happen if someone actually took them up on their offer, recieved nothing and then sued them. i bet they'll settle out of court and write it up as a price of doing business.

reply to post by randomname
so there is no misunderstanding here,.
The scamer has enclosed a check to deposit.
Not that I was asked to put personal money in

Don't believe any of these emails and letters; they are all scams. If you receive any of these, contact your local Police Enforcement or FBI.

Hi,

I own a cheque cashing business, and I come across these from time to time. Basically, DON'T BANK THE CHEQUE.

You may well get credited with the funds initially, but once the bank finds the cheque is fraudulent, you'll find the authorities knocking on your door.

No doubt you can show them the letter and they will drop the investigation into you, but do you need the hassle? You're obviously clued up on this enough already, but it's really sad how many people get caught up in this.

What you'd likely find is that once the cheque clears they'll ask you to Western Union them some kind of payment to release your prize, but the bank (in the UK at least) has a minimum of 90 days to reclaim any money from your account - though the time is essentially unlimited if there's fraud involved.

Goldenchild

reply to post by GoldenChild
AS soon as I looked it up on line the deal was understood,.
I had no intentions of cashing the check or even leaving for the bank,.
I got it rather quickly,.
I posted this for others to see and to be aware.

If you had deposited the check, how likely is it that the check would have bounced, causing you to lose money? For some reason, I doubt that whoever sent the check actually had the money in their account.

@ Lil Drummerboy - sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that you'd been taken in by the scam, the information was aimed at anybody else reading the thread who might not be so aware.

@ benuphoenix - generally, the account details printed on the forged cheque are for a different (random) company's bank account, so it will clear initially but will be pulled when their accounts dept picks up on the mystery debit that's come from their balance. The scam would be pointless if they were actually writing cheques out from their own bank account that cleared - that's what we call an Irish 419 scam

Isn't this type of thing illegal?

Originally posted by MadMax8511
Isn't this type of thing illegal?

Yes it is,.
and unfortunately some do believe it hook line and sinker.

Originally posted by GoldenChild
@ Lil Drummerboy - sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that you'd been taken in by the scam, the information was aimed at anybody else reading the thread who might not be so aware.
]

No need to be sorry,.
I appreciate your comments

I don't know anyone, but there are loads of Nigerian dudes and dudettes who know my e-mail and want to send me gazillions. But I am modest and decline from wealth.

It also seems most of the ppl sending me e-mail think I have sexual dysfunction and want me to buy the cheapest blue pills ever! Oh well.