I received a letter today from the De-Lotto North American Sweepstakes Lottery with the good news that I was one of 5 winners of $262, 000. Included with the letter was a check for $4850.00. I brought the check to Chase, who told me that "it looked legitimate, " and they actually scanned it in a device they have which DID NOT reject it. I was incredulous, and called the number provided in the letter, 1-647-893-7439. I was told by a friendly and articulate woman that I had, indeed, won more than $250, 000 in a lottery in which I had been automatically entered when I "used my credit card at Wal-Mart or Home Depot" in the past year (who hasn't?). I was to "remit $2950 to them for Canadian taxes" 24 hours after I deposited the check, after which time "it will have cleared." When I pointed out to the person on the phone that it takes more than 24 hours for a check to clear she was not unnerved in the least, "feel free to wait a week then; no problem." I called Valley National Bank, the bank upon whom the check was drawn, and they confirmed that it was fraudulent. It is a perfect check, with a watermark, multicolored, and extremely legitimate looking. EXTREMELY. Final note: I called back the nice woman on the phone to ask if it's hard to perpetrate scams like this, and she told me she was really sorry that I thought it was a scam "because it is not, " but I was "free to throw away my fortune if I chose to." I urge you to be careful. I am not easily duped, and I wasn't, but I could easily see someone with a little less street smarts falling for this really well-executed scam.
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