I received a letter notifying me that I had won a sweepstakes prize (funny, I don't remember entering any sweepstakes). Supposedly the drawing was on May 12, but the letter just arrived with an urgent request to contact the company by June 10 (Hey! Today is June 10, I better call). I called the number for "Linda Jackson" at Saxon Exchange Bureau and spoke with a woman who sounded distinctly Indian or Pakistani. I was to deposit the smaller of the enclosed checks, $1, 560.21, and then contact the company for additional instructions on where to fax this amount in order to obtain the surety bond required to claim the big prize of $10, 520.28.
Now, I would think that if a legitimate company wanted to contact me regarding a prize disbursement, they would:
1. Contact me immediately after the prize drawing rather than a month later
2. Not insist that I contact the company the day I receive the notice without having taken the time to have a lawyer examine it first
3. Not use bulk mail to send out the notification; at least get a return receipt for the darn thing!
4. Keep the small check themselves so they can process the "surety bond" themselves; why should I have to do that?
The whole thing just didn't make sense and I'm glad that I checked the complaint before falling into their trap as my trusting husband nearly did. Luckily one of us is the suspicious type! I suspect the goal of the scam is to harvest the $1, 560.21 from the accounts of those who were trusting enough to believe their story when the check they sent fails to clear, leaving the victims with a large deficit plus overdraft fees to add insult to injury.
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