Snail Mail Scam (This Happened To Me)
The other day I received a Snail Mail letter from a real company that looked real official. It said that I won $250,000.00 in a contest and they even sent a $6,000.00 check to cover some of the taxes. WOW - I WON - I WON!!! Hey, I didn’t enter no contest, IS THIS FOR REAL???
First thing I did was check out the company. I went online and searched for the company name and guess what? The company is real and so was the address. The company even had a good B&D rating. MMMMMMMMMM What’s Up? Next, I took the check to the bank and you wouldn’t believe it, THE CHECK for $6,000.00 was a real check drawn on a real bank account with sufficient funds to cover the check. Could this be the real deal? I could really use $250,000.00 or $6,000.00 or whatever I could get! Times are tough you know!
Alright! Calm down Greg, let’s go back to the letter, follow the instructions, and get the money. The instruction says to call a Mr. BlaBlaBla at a certain number. Mr. BlaBlaBla will verify your winnings, collect some information, and get you your money ASAP. What information did Mr. BlaBlaBla want! Full Legal Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number for tax purposes of course (I’m beginning to smell a fish).
Next Mr. BlaBlaBla informed me that there is a block on the check that he sent to me. He said that the purpose of the check was to reimburse me for Federal and State Taxes on the prize winnings and that I would need to direct-draft to him $6,000.00 from my account first. He said that he would release the lock on the check as soon as the funds were received and that he would send the remainder of the $250,000.00 at that time.
Ok, now we can see the scam for what it is. Mr. BlaBlaBla wants my legal name, date of birth, and social security number for identity theft. He can use it himself and/or sell the name to others so they can use it too. Can you hear that sucking noise? That’s the sound of my live wafting away.
Then, Mr. BlaBlaBla will take my banking information and use it to clean out the bank account, as well as any saving and overdraft accounts that may be attached to it. In addition, he could sell the banking information.
What I failed to mention earlier is that when I checked out the company, I knew that I did not enter any contest and that something was up. I contacted the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and they told me that there had been a lot of scams lately that looked real good but were totally fraudulent, international fraud. So when I talked to Mr. BlaBlaBla I recoded that conversation, then sent copies of all materials and the recording to the FTC and the South Carolina State Attorney General Office. And of course I didn’t give Mr. BlaBlaBla real information about myself. About a week later the phone number from the letter was disconnected or no longer in service and their bank account was closed.
Bottom line: If it’s too good to be true, it is. You can’t win a contest you didn’t enter.
NEVER NEVER NEVER give your vital information, bank information, social security numbers
Report scams and fraud to the proper authorities.