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Fraudsters Masquerading as Well-Known Companies

Kansas Attorney General takes on impersonators

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 10, 2008

Lottery/Sweepstakes Scams • Fraudsters Masquerading as Well Known Companies • Yahoo! Sues Fake Lottery Scammers • Canadian Lottery Scam Resurfaces • Consumers Continue To Fall For Phony Lottery Scam • Postal Inspectors Seize Billions in Fake Checks • Lottery Scam Victim: "No One Cares" • Consumers Falling For Lottery Scams In Increasing Numbers • FTC: Older Americans Hit Hard by Consumer fraud, ID Theft • Florida Warns of Pay-to-Claim Sweepstakes Scams • Texas Sues Sweepstakes Operator • Iowa Busts Sweepstakes Scheme • Crackdowns in 9 states • Feds seek court order • Feds sue Australian scam operators • American Home Products • Reader's Digest Pays $6 Million to Settle Sweepstakes Complaints --- • Atlantic Lottery • Australian Lottery • European International Lotto • How to spot a scam

If you received a letter saying you'd won a big prize in the Acme Lottery, you might be more likely to ignore the letter, correctly thinking that it was a scam. But if you got a letter saying you'd won the Reader's Digest Lottery, you might be more likely to bite.

Scammers, it seems, have figured that out. More and more, they are using the names of well known and trusted companies in their fraudulent schemes, according to Kansas Attorney General Steve Six.

Six says consumers in central Kansas have received notifications of prizes accompanied by documents that appear to be checks. The consumer is asked to deposit the check in their bank account, then wire money using Western Union or MoneyGram back to the issuer of the check to pay "clearance or processing fees."

The consumer is directed to call a number from an area code in Quebec, Canada to "release winnings and validate [the] check" that was enclosed. The letter also contains a seal similar to the official seal for the United States Department of Justice, and claims it is "Approved by the Attorney General."

In reality, those rare legitimate sweepstakes winnings do not require advance payment of fees or taxes. Taxes are collected by government agencies, not by a company that provides the sweepstakes winnings.

Many scam artists will issue a check to a consumer, then ask the recipient to deposit the check, and before the check has time to clear the issuing bank request the consumer wire money from their account back the scam artist. These requests are usually accompanied with a sense of urgency, that the prize must be claimed by a certain date, and waiting for the check to clear the issuing bank would allow the prize to expire.

A similar type of scam includes information that the consumer has won a foreign lottery, but that certain fees must be paid before the check can be issued. Six says U.S. consumers are ineligible for foreign lottery winnings.

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