Do you think this is a scam?

My friend gets a letter in the mail telling her she has won $200,000 for finishing 2nd in some drawing held in Las Vegas. Included with the letter is a check for $2,975 from Wells Fargo bank to cover the "fees" associated with winning the $200,000. Now she has the option to send them the $3,000 herself to cover the "fees" by not cashing the check and claiming the full prize amount of $200,000, or she can Western Union the $2,975 back to them and claim a prize of $180,000(which is minus 10%) for them covering the "fees".

I'd say I'm 99% certain this is a scam but I just wanted to get some opinions on this please. I'm a little surprised they would send you a $3,000 check up front and it still be a scam. She already deposited the check for $2,975 and the check cleared and the money is in her account.

The name of the company is Global Union Sweepstakes and they are out of Canada. How would you go about finding out if something like this is legit?

Thanks in advance

I'd say I'm 99% certain this is a scam but I just wanted to get some opinions on this please. I'm a little surprised they would send you a $3,000 check up front and it still be a scam. She already deposited the check for $2,975 and the check cleared and the money is in her account.

Click to expand...

um,mmm-check-cleared

absolute scam, the check will not be good eventually.

So I guess kid thinks it's a scam, anyone else

Journey- aren't you shocked that they would send out 3k though?

Weird. Did friend enter contest ? Even weirder to get good check.

How can the check not be good eventually??? Just curious, the money is already in her account.

No...I'll open an account and send you a bogus check for $3k in the hopes that you'll send me $3k back!

CoolBreeze22 said:

Journey- aren't you shocked that they would send out 3k though?

Click to expand...

Yea but the check will not be good...you are saying the check is good and is aready in her account? You see though sometimes banks will put a check in and then it will come back as bad, is this an international check?

Your 99% sure it is a scam while I'm 100% sure.

Sweepstakes scam involves big check





Dana L. Bowley El Defensor Chieftain Editor, dbowley@dchieftain.com

A different twist on an old scam offering free money has found its way to Socorro, and police are warning residents to beware.
The scam effort was brought to the attention of Socorro police and El Defensor Chieftain by City Councilor Gary Jaramillo.
Jaramillo recently received a mailing from an outfit called Global Financial Trust & Services, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, containing a letter and a very real-looking check.
The letter said the company had been trying to locate Jaramillo for some time to release to him $50,000 in sweepstakes winnings that will be returned to the sweepstakes pool if not claimed soon.
Accompany the letter is a check for $2,800 drawn on the account of Smiths Aerospace Components of Mountaintop, Penn.
The letter says that before the winnings can be released the recipient has to pay the taxes due, and that the check is part of the winnings that will enable the recipient to pay the taxes without any out-of-pocket expense.
The recipient is instructed to cash the check and then call their "assigned claims agent," who will provide instructions on how to send the money back to the company via Western Union or Money Gram.
The letter says the company will then pay the taxes and release the remaining money to the recipient.
The twist in this scam is the check. Usually with this scam, the recipient is required to just come up with a certain amount of money to claim their prize, an amount ranging anywhere from $49 up.
In this case, however, the recipient will be able to cash the check, because it is drawn on a legitimate company and contains the company's correct account and routing information.
Jaramillo said he usually just throws away such mailings, but the check piqued his interest because Smiths Aerospace Components is a subsidiary of a company he has done work for, and he thought it might be payment for some recent work.
But coupled with the letter, he said, he knew something was wrong, so he contacted people he knew in the company.
"They told me they were getting hammered with this because the checks are realistic forgeries with all the right information on them," Jaramillo said.
Although a recipient might be able to cash the check, the company has put a stop-payment on them so the check will be returned to the cashing bank, which will either charge it back to the recipient's account or seek reimbursement, Jaramillo said. As a result, the recipient would be out the $2,800. Jaramillo said he also call the "claim agent" number, where the person with a heavy foreign accent gave him instructions on where to send the money, "but he told me to be very secretive about this and not tell anyone because people would be after me to give them money."
The check sent to Jaramillo had a couple of errors on it that are a tip-off it is counterfeit. Along with a misspelled word, the zip code in the address for the check issuer contains six numbers. Standard zip codes contain five numbers.
Socorro police say this is the first recent case of this type of scam that has been reported here. They advise anyone receiving such a mailing not to cash the check and to contact the state Attorney General's Office at (505) 827-6000.
The Attorney General's Office has encountered this type of scam before and reminds people that:
If you didn't enter a sweepstakes, you didn't win it;
You should never have to pay money upfront to collect winnings, even if the company appears to have sent you the upfront money; and
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. El Defensor Chieftain reporter Audry Olmsted contributed to this report.
http://www.dchieftain.com/news/61836-05-27-06.html

Thank you Max, you're a life saver! this is exactly what I was looking for.

Don't send a penny. they send hundred's of thousands of these things and if they get one back a week they are rich !

As you know by now it's a scam...

I'm amazed by how many people get duped by those Nigerian e-mail scams. The ones that say they have millions of dollars to deposit and need your help.

Or the one where a woman from Europe says she has American money orders, used to purchase some of her artwork. It's easier to deposit in American than in Europe to a scam goes out looking for someone to help. When someone does the woman sends whoever like 5 Wal Mart money orders for $1,000 each. Tells the person to deposit those and send back the remaining amount, minus like some percentage, via Western union. So the person does and thinks they've made easy money. Well a week or so will pass and the bank will realize the money orders are fake. So they withdraw however much from the person's bank account and now they've lost the money they wired transfered and the money to cover the fake money orders.

Seriously some people are so easily duped.

Seymour said:

Your 99% sure it is a scam while I'm 100% sure.

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if-its-to-good-to-be-true-

you-know-the-saying

definitely a scam and beware of the new paypal scam

this is a scam for sure be realcareful this scam orriginates in nigeria and has duped millions of dollares from especially the elderly saw a thing on 20/20 a few weeks ago about it also be careful about any email you guys receive from paypal i received one which i will post a copy of a lil later it looks like a paypal security memo but is a false one being sent to obtain your personal information BE CAREFUL IF ITS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT IS !!!!!!!! [FONT=courier new,verdana,arial]
Dear PayPal Member,

PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its community of
buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account, PayPal employs
some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud
teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual activity.

Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual activity in your
account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to ensure that your
account has not been compromised, access to it was flagged.You
will remain flagged until this issue has been resolved.
This is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is not
compromised.

In order to secure your account and quickly restore full access, we may
require some specific information from you for the following reason:

Our system requires further account verification.

Case ID Number: PP-056-245-481
We encourage you to log in and restore full access as soon as possible.
Should your account remain flagged for an extended period of time,
it may result in further limitations on the use of your account or
may result in eventual account closure.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Please click on the link below to log in
and restore full access to your account.
https://www.paypal.com/update/SecureHTTPS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that
this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We
apologize for any inconvenience.


Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department

PayPal Email ID PP562 [/FONT]
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

We appreciate you bringing this suspicious email to our attention. We
can confirm that the email you received was not sent to you by PayPal.
The website linked to this email is not a registered URL authorized or
used by PayPal. We are currently investigating this incident fully.
Please do not enter any personal or financial information into this
website.

If you have surrendered any personal or financial information to this
fraudulent website, you should immediately log in to your PayPal account
and change your password and security question and answer information.
Any compromised financial information should be reported to the
appropriate parties.

Please forward the entire email - including the header information - or
the site's URL to spoof@paypal.com We investigate every spoof reported.
Please note that the automatic response you receive from us may not
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If you notice any unauthorized activity associated with your PayPal
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1. Log in to your account at htpps://www.paypal.com
2. Click on the Security Center at the bottom of the page.
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5. Fill out the information and click "Continue."
6. Review the information and click "Submit" to file your claim.

For additional tips, please click on the Security Center link at the
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We appreciate your efforts to keep PayPal safe.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department


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This
email is sent to you by the contracting entity to your User Agreement,
either PayPal Inc or PayPal (Europe) Limited. PayPal(Europe) Limited is
authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the UK
as an electronic money institution.
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Original Message Follows:
-------------------------


i thought this was a spoof thanks

>From: "PayPal Inc." <info@paypal.com>
>To:
>Subject: INFO: Your PayPal Account
>Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 06:19:05 -0400 (EDT)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Dear PayPal
>Member,
>
>PayPal is committed to maintaining a safe environment for its
>community of
>buyers and sellers. To protect the security of your account,
>PayPal employs
>some of the most advanced security systems in the world and
>our anti-fraud
>teams regularly screen the PayPal system for unusual
>activity.
>
>Recently, our Account Review Team identified some unusual
>activity in your
>account. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and to
>ensure that your
>account has not been compromised, access to it was
>flagged.You
>will remain flagged until this issue has been resolved.
>This
>is a fraud prevention measure meant to ensure that your account is
>not
>compromised.
>
>In order to secure your account and quickly restore
>full access, we may
>require some specific information from you for the
>following reason:
>
>Our system requires further account verification.
>
>
>
>Case ID Number: PP-056-245-481
>We encourage you to log in and restore
>full access as soon as possible.
>Should your account remain flagged for an
>extended period of time,
>it may result in further limitations on the use of
>your account or
>may result in eventual account
>closure.
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Please
>click on the link below to log in
>and restore full access to your account.
>
>
>https://www.paypal.com/update/SecureHTTPS
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Thank
>you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that
>this is
>a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We
>apologize>for any inconvenience.

I just do not even know why people waste 5 seconds of their life with shit of this nature - I have a friend that almost fell for some scam where they tell you they can't get access to their money so they want to send 10 million to your account type of bullshit - when he told me about it I KNEW HE WAS AN IDIOT FOR EVEN CONSIDERING IT.

so what if you cash the check at some ghetto-ass check cashing joint that holds some of the money and doesn't trace back to your bank account?

edit: not supporting the idea of fraud, just wondering what would happen if someone did this

But I don't think you can cash that check.