Complaint Review: Direct Clearing House

Today my husband received a letter from Direct Clearing House stating he was the lucky winner of an unclaimed prize of $94,165.00 from a drawing on March 03, 2008. It went on to claim that participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from Readers Digest, Publishers Clearing House, computer games, etc. Then there was the line about the international law about a processing fee. A check for $3800.00 was enclosed. It was from an automotive company out of Ohio drawn on a JP Morgan account. The letter stated to call 819 4610536 for instructions. That number was a recording. At the bottom of the letter, was a complaint number, 1-819-461-1274. When we called the number, some guy said hello. No formal greeting stating Direct Clearing House. I told him about the letter and claim number. He said he was Josh and his brother John was in a meeting. He said to deposit the check, he did not want our bank info. Then he said to call back when it had cleared for further instructions. Thats when I went online for a little research and learned of the Canandian Sweepstakes scams. I've also learned that the checks they send are either forgeries or real checks stolen from companies by the scammer through computer hacking. So if you got this letter, report it. We have to put a stop to this immediately. Think of the people who will fall for this like we almost did and end up in a world of trouble.

Jennispr33
Frostburg, Maryland
U.S.A.