Watch your snail mail for a new scam...

[JamesMom]

I got a non descript letter today. It was a plain white business size envelope with a Canandian stamp (not metered) with a white Avery address label with my name. No return address.
Inside was a letter and a 'cashiers' check for $3,875. The letter claimed I won a lottery and before the Canadian bank can give me my full prize ($125,000), I needed to deposit this check and call them so I can pay the $2,875 tax due on the prize.
Yeah... right.

Do have to hand it to them the check looks good - has a watermark, paper threads, account numbers and drawn from an actual US bank. Regardless this check is going straight to the shredder. The company is Dominion Investment Securities - a play on the name of a real company RPC Dominion Securities.

I wonder how many people 'cashed' the check - had the money deposited in their account, callede and paid the 'tax' and then got socked with a return check fee AND out the three grand...

This is quite a step up from the Brazilian prince email scam.

 

[here757]

I got a non descript letter today. It was a plain white business size envelope with a Canandian stamp (not metered) with a white Avery address label with my name. No return address.
Inside was a letter and a 'cashiers' check for $3,875. The letter claimed I won a lottery and before the Canadian bank can give me my full prize ($125,000), I needed to deposit this check and call them so I can pay the $2,875 tax due on the prize.
Yeah... right.

Do have to hand it to them the check looks good - has a watermark, paper threads, account numbers and drawn from an actual US bank. Regardless this check is going straight to the shredder. The company is Dominion Investment Securities - a play on the name of a real company RPC Dominion Securities.

I wonder how many people 'cashed' the check - had the money deposited in their account, callede and paid the 'tax' and then got socked with a return check fee AND out the three grand...

This is quite a step up from the Brazilian prince email scam.

wow.. they are getting smoother and smoother.
my husband's friend got something similar.. he didnt believe me when i told him it was a scam.. thought i was raining on his parade.. LOL
i did convience him to take the check to navy federal and ask...
now he believes me LOL

 

[dawson5]

My mother got one of these from a lottery she "won" in England. I asked her if she had signed up for one. She claimed she might have a few years ago when she had went. I told her it was a scam and not be fooled. I did talk her into taking it to the Post Office to turn in. Shredding stops it from being put into the wrong hands, turning it in might be a step in finding these guys and prosecuting them.


Sidenote: My mother in law just told me this past weekend of an elderly lady back home, who had been taken in by a scam similar to this. I think she was out about $7,000 though.

 

[Alexander]

Very few things make me more angry than when the elderly get scammed! Boy that really boils my blood!

 

[Gigi22]

And to top it all off, there is no tax on lottery winnings in Canada. You would only have to pay tax in the US.

 

[seashoreCM]

What if you deposited the check but did not pay anyone and did not send part of the money anywhere, thus not following the directions completely?

 

[eeyorethegreat]

What if you deposited the check but did not pay anyone and did not send part of the money anywhere, thus not following the directions completely?

It is not a real check so if the money was deposited before the bank checks for suffcient funds, it would come back in which the money would be tqken back out of your account qnd you may have fees to pay for cashing a check with insufficient funds.

 

[CC12005]

What if you deposited the check but did not pay anyone and did not send part of the money anywhere, thus not following the directions completely?

Another scam they sometimes use, if they have a legitimate account, even if they only have a penny in it, is to get your account number off the returned check to deplete your accounts. This is why cashing it is a no win situation.