Canada-Complaints.com » Miscellaneous » Complaint / review: Inland Securities And Trust - Sent a suspicious check & want $2875 back before I cash it | #20674

Inland Securities And Trust
Sent a suspicious check & want $2875 back before I cash it

I recently got a letter from Inland Security & Trust. I was suspicious before I even opened it, because it was postmarked in Canada, and there was no return address.
Inside, there was a letter and a check for $4875. The check was set up differently from a normal check, it was to the order of me AND my street address, and the company's name was shown with a period at the end of it twice on the check. Also, there were two addresses at the top of the check. One showed Inland Securities and Trust., and the address given was a PO Box in Morristown, NJ. The other address was for PNC Bank, N.A., which showed their New Jersey address. We later called PNC to alert them about the scam having their name on it, and they said we weren't the first people to tell them about Inland Security and Trust's fake checks.
The letter claimed I won the DE-LOTTO NORTH AMERICAN SWEEPSTAKES LOTTERY, and that I was entitled to $125, 000. The check for $4875 was for "applicable government taxes", and explained that these taxes couldn't be deducted because of the "insurance bond policy coverage" (which made no sense, because I didn't need money to pay taxes if taxes didn't apply.)
After that, this sentence was seperated from the other paragraphs: "The tax amount is USD $2, 875 (TWO THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTYFIVE DOLLARS) to be paid either by WESTERN UNION OR MONEYGRAM directly to the tax agent." (Note: "WESTERN UNION" and "MONEYGRAM" were in bold. "directly to the tax agent" was in bold italics) I noticed several things about this sentence. The words SEVENTY and FIVE had no space between them, and the tax amount was $2000 below the check amount.
The last paragraph was extremely suspicious. Here's what they wanted me to do: Do not cash your check before calling us; Keep your winning confidential until we process your claim and remit your cash to you. The last sentence had another typo in it.

In the next section, I was supposed to call the Claims/Disbursement Agent (Mr. Frank Morris), whose phone number was the same as the one listed as the only office line. This section contained 2 more typos.
The letter was signed by Joseph I. Peters, the promotion manager. However, below the picture of his signature, it listed his name as "JOSEPH .I. PETER", adding two more typos (There was also another typo in the office hours shown below that)

Out of curiosity, I called the number. The person who answered had a deep accent I could barely understand. He asked for the claim number that was in the letter. After I told him it, I asked what this was all about. He ignored me and asked for my name. When I said I didn't want to give my name; I just wanted to know what the check was all about. He rudely said, "If you will not give your name, then we have no interest in your business. Do not call this number again."

Date:

Company: Inland Securities And Trust

Country: Canada   Province: Ontario   City: Toronto
Address: 100 King Street
Phone: 6478344950

Category: Miscellaneous

0 comments

Information
Only registered users can leave comments.
Please Register on our website, it will take a few seconds.




Quick Registration via social networks:
Login with FacebookLogin with Google