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December 5, 2005
BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Business Reporter
The checks looked so real.
A few weeks back, a friend of mine received two checks in the mail -- each promising to pay $4,500.
The letters accompanying the checks told him that he'd won a foreign lottery he hadn't entered.
The letters had different letterheads and postmarks -- one from "New Age Promotion," the other from "Worldwide Award Promotion" -- but they sounded almost exactly alike.
They were both loaded with breathless enthusiasm, mysterious warnings and bad spelling.
"We are pleased to inform you about the results of the GOLDED SWEEPSTAKES" the letters announced. The award in one letter was $285,000, while the other offered $1.2 million.
The letters claimed that the participants were selected through a "computer ballot system" drawn from entries from six continents.
The letters cautioned my friend not to tell the public about the awards "due to a mix up [sic] of some numbers and names." The enclosed check had been deducted out of his winnings so he can pay his "fees," each letter explained, and my friend was urged to "call one of our agents immediately" to activate the check.
"CONGRATULATION [sic] once again ..."
My friend was born in 1923, which is a more precise way of saying he wasn't born yesterday. He knew this was a scam. But he couldn't help wondering about the checks. Were they real?
They had everything a check should have -- a water mark, an endorsement line, a bank name and a routing number.
These checks look real because they are real -- but unauthorized, explained Annie McGuire, a fraud victim advocate in Long Beach, Calif., who runs the Web site www.fraudaid.com. Scam artists might steal actual checks and wash them, so they can put new amounts and names onto them.
One check, for example, was from "Media Products of Atlanta Inc.," a real company in Jacksonville, Fla., that sells broadcast and industrial video products. The president, Stu Triebwasser, was horrified to learn that his company's name was on one of these checks. "I feel like I'm going to be sick," Triebwasser said.
If the fraud victim deposits the check, the money might temporarily appear as "cleared" in the victim's account. But once the bank realizes the check's no good, the account holder is responsible for it. Meanwhile, the victim has wired off his "fee" money, and it's gone.
Last March, three Illinois residents received these types of letters and checks and followed the instructions, according to the Illinois attorney general's office. After depositing the checks and sending thousands of dollars to pay non-existent fees, the checks bounced, and the victims were on the hook for the money. ^ Back to top
The money goes to prop up the scammer's business, or might go to fund drug trafficking and terrorism, McGuire said.
If you receive an e-mail or "snail mail" letter saying you've won money, the attorney general's office advises you to remember these facts:
*Playing an international lottery by mail or phone violates U.S. law.
*Don't give your bank or credit-card number to anyone connected with these "lotteries."
*If you didn't buy a ticket, you didn't win;
*You should never pay an advance fee for a lottery;
McGuire advises people who receive these letters to scan a copy and send it to alert@fdic.gov, along with a brief explanation of how it was received. She then recommends writing "VOID" on the check, "LOTTERY SCAM" on the back of the envelope, and turning the mailing over to the post office, to be delivered to the U.S. postal inspector.
If a "lottery representative" calls, McGuire recommends blowing a whistle into the scammer's ear.
McGuire has been running the fraud aid Web site for seven years and hears about all the grifts, all the ponzis, the lotteries and the phony pleas for tsunami relief. But they never cease making her angry.
"You'd think I'd get over it, but I don't," McGuire. "I get mad every damn time." ^ Back to top
Copyright 2005, Digital Chicago Inc.
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