I received a letter, through the US mail, from Capitol One Services Inc., and North-American Sweepstakes Lottery stating that I had won $250, 000.00. The letter was dated 11-12-2006, and came from Ontario, Canada. The phone number and fax number they gave me to call is from a USA number, and there was also a foreign number, I am assuming a Canadian number, to call for a contact.
The letter looks really tacky and was over stated and not well done for a formal letter. The person who fabricated it's presentation was not a good designer. It looks like they used a word processing clip art for their logo.
The envelope was a plain consumer envelope, and did not have a return address on it. It looks like any letter someone would send, because my name and address were hand written on it. This, in itself, looks odd for a large company giving away so much money to not have their return address on it, with no fear of their $4, 500.00 check getting into the hands of the wrong person, and for them to not have my address type written. What reputable company would not have their own stationary to match their own mailing envelopes?
The letter stated that the lottery participants were selected through a random computer ballot system drawn from over 500, 000 names. I did not enter any lottery, either national, statewide, or worldwide.
There was also enclosed with the letter a check from Capitol One Services Inc. in the amount of $4, 500.00, and it was stated in the letter that this check was deducted from my $250, 000.00 winnings, and that they would be using some of the $4, 500.00 toward applicable taxes on the lump sum of $250, 000.
The surcharge/processing fee would be $2, 950.00 and would be payable to Western Union or Moneygram.
It was signed by Chelsea McPherson Hellit, as a client care manager.
I have not responded to this letter, and do not intend to. I have a fear that if I do, I will be just verifying my personal information for their fraud purposes, and I do not intend to turn over my hard earned money to them.
I am a senior citizen, approaching retirement in about 5 more years, and I feel that they target my age group. This is the 3rd letter like this I have received, so I feel that I am on their fraud mailing list. However, this is the first one I have received that had a check in it.
The first one I received, I called the USPS, the National Fraud Alert, and called the Federal Trade Center, and wrote to my Attorney General in my state of North Carolina, and also included a copy of the letter to him. I also faxed a copy of the letter to the FTC. About a month later, I did receive a "form" letter from the Attorney General stating that they were trying deter scam in our fair state.
I am very, very, extremely, extremely disappointed that no one has offered to follow up on the company that wants to shaft me, and that this is not considered a crime to a victim who may be set up for identiy fraud and tampering with my information to steal my bank account, and tarnishing my good name and credit standing. I made every effort to be a good citizen and report this to every authority that I can think of, and obeyed the person who I contacted and who referred me to another government office.
I gave them all the information that they needed, but they are not investigating it to put the crooks in jail. In my opinion, this gives the crooks a clear message that they have carte blanche to rip off anyone they please without fear if any retributions, and or any consequences for any illegal deeds. It tells them that they are not doing anything illegal if people are contacting the proper authorities and the proper authorities are ingnoring the reports from the very people who are paying their salaries to protect them.
I feel that nothing will ever be followed up on any claim I make, no matter how many of these scams I get, or anyone else gets. If I fall for this scam, it's my little red wagon, and I am stuck with it, and so are millions of other unsuspecting innocent people.
In my opinion, there are too many of these scammers, and it's just low priority on government agenda. The reason there are too many of them, is because they are becoming so successful with it, and not being prosecuted, that the numbers of unscrupulous people are increasing and joining in without fear of being prosecuted. These crooks know this, and they are taking the ball and running with it.
The honest people of this world need to be educated on this and stop replying to these scammers. We need to send them a solid message to let them know that we are wise to their fraudulent scams, and they may as well stop. When they stop making money off of us, they will stop trying to scam us. We have to be smarter, or just as smart, as they are, and realize that we do not get anything for nothing. We have to protect OURSELVES if our law enforcement will not take action to stop these creeps.
If you do not enter a legitament lottery, you do not win a legitament lottery.
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