Global Trust INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE SWEEPSTATKES ,sic LOTTERY PROGRAM; Second Prize $90,000.00 St. John New Brunswick
I received a letter saying I was a Winner! in some sweepstatkes (sic) lottery which was held on September 13, 2007. My name was attached to ticket # 4589 and won the lottery prize in the second category of "$90,000.00 Dollars." Claim # GT/WNN/77488.
Enclosed was a check for $2,870.00 payable to me. "[T]here are fees of a calculated amount of $2,870.00. The name on the check is Greenwood-Heinemann Publishing Group, 88 Post Road West, P.O. Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007 (a legitimate company). The name of the bank was Citibank Delaware, One Penn's Way, New Castle, Delaware 19720. Check #24100152. Vendor # 092784. I am to contact Mrs. Shelley Tillmon at 306-880-2641.
I'm game, so I call Mrs. Tillmon - correction - for days I try to reach Mrs. Tillmon. On Thursday I reach her; I am to deposit the check into my checking account and call her as soon as the check clears. Saturday, a day after the deposit, I call her telling her it cleared. I am now to go to the bank and withdraw that $2,870.00 and call her back when I "have the cash in hand." OK, I call her and she now instructs me to go to a Western Union and send this money to Sharyn Prichett, 1750 Driftwood Dr., New Brunswick, Canada E3A 4Y8. I am to deduct the amount of this transfer from the $2,870 I hold in my hand. Fine, the whole thing costs $2868.99. Sharyn only gets $2,700.00 since the fee was $168.99. I pocket $1.01.
I am to call Mrs. Tillmon with the money transfer number as soon as it is sent. I do that and she has to check with Sharyn to be sure she got it. About an hour later she calls; all went well. Someone will be coming to my house on Monday, October 8, between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Surprisingly, no body shows up!! I call and get a message saying everyone was busy and leave a detailed message. I hear another message saying there is no more room for any more messages.
Tuesday, October 9, I call again and get the same messages. I keep calling every half hour and finally get a man with a very thick accent. He transfers me to another woman who tells me Mrs. Tillman "is on vacation" and she will try to help me. She pulls my file and I tell her nobody showed up yesterday. She tells me she has my number and says she "will talk to my supervisor." and then the phone starts beeping and disconnects. I wait awhile and call the same number back and get this message "______ (cut off) is unavailable at the moment. Please, try again later." Wonderful.
I come online and check out the Greenwood-Heinemann website a little closer. Nothing looks suspicious. I Google Global Trust Inc. and come across this wonderful web site. I saw another person who must have received the same letter I did, except their contact person was different. I called that number: 403-397-9520. I get a man and I tell him I need to speak to Mrs. Shelley Tillmon. He connects me right to her!! I told her that I had called and "some woman told me you were on vacation." No comment. I tell her no one showed up yesterday. She says that she now sees where I have to send $1,750.00 to another agent for state taxes, and wants to know when I can send it. HUH? I have 24 hours to send it the same way we did the other money.
Well, the other money was not mine, so I figured I won't lose anything by playing along. She swears the check is ready and waiting to be delivered, I just need to send this money. There is no way I can get that kind of money. I didn't tell her that. I told her I'ld let her know if I can pay it; she wants to know what time I'm going to call her back. I pick any number off the top of my head..."3 o'clock." She asks if I will be calling her back at this number (403-397-9520), and I say "Yeaaahhh." I plan on getting that other name and address from her and string her along as far as I can until I have to tell her to DIAF. This is making up for the wasted day yesterday!!
I am tempted to call Greenwood-Heinemann and ask them if they know about this scam involving their company. I wonder what they would say.
Kelly
Green River, Wyoming
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Kelly
Green River,Wyoming,
U.S.A.
CHECK IS COUNTERFIT
#3Author of original report
Thu, October 11, 2007
Against my better judgement, I decided to go one step further with these people. I talked to Shelley Tillmon on Oct. 9th and she really needed to know if I was going to send the $1,750.00 for federal taxes. I kept bringing up the fact that I had reservations about it. I was assured that she "just wanted to get my check to me." I told her I would call her in the morning. I managed to get the money. I called Shelley and had to leave a message. I called Caty Davis and she answered. She said Shelley was in a meeting and she was instructed to answer any questions I had. I asked her if she could fax or email me anything off my "file". She ignored me and asked if I wanted to talk with the supervisor but "she can't tell you any more than I can." She was nice enough to even give me the names of the "couriers" who will deliver my check - Michael Spence and Sarah Winters. I was told that 10% would be deducted from the check leaving $82,000.00. I came up with $81,000.00. Anyway, the money is to go to a "bond officer" named Miss Marilyn Clements 1096 Rolland St. Verdun, Quebec H8R 3S3. I go and transfer the money (MTCN: 110-174-8973) and call Caty. She said she will get back with me within 2 hours. I called at 11:01 a.m. She would tell me then when these couriers were coming. Of course, she never calls. I call her at 1:52 p.m. and there is no answer. I call Shelley at 2:15 p.m. and told her I made the trasfer. She acted like she didn't know about it. She said she would "talk to her supervisor and call me back." We all know what happens now. No phone call ever comes. No one answers their phones, so I leave messages. I call in the morning (Oct. 11) and leave messages that I never heard back from anyone. Then, my bank calls and tells me the check was counterfit. What little money I managed to put in there ($100 at the most) was gone and I'm responsible for $2,701.02. I'm kind of between jobs right now and I may be making $150.00 a month! So, I'm out a total of $4,560.01! All of which I have to replace. What is the lesson to be learned from all of this? I think it is that if you or anyone you know receives anything whatsoever from Global Trust Inc, please, ignore it!! If anyone wants to use my name and call Caty or Shelley, the last name is Worden. I pretty much gave all the information I have in these posts. The first money transfer MTCN is: 684-844-4600. Now I think I will write to Greenwood-Heinemann Publishing Group and tell them that the check with their name on it was counterfit.
Jeff
Boston,Massachusetts,
U.S.A.
For your sake...
#3Consumer Comment
Wed, October 10, 2007
you may want to try and get some money back if not all of it. I'm a bank fraud investigator and if/when the check returns you're going to be responsible for any and all overdrafts. For example, if your account had $100 in it, you deposit $2,800 then you take the $2,800 out you're left with the $100. Once the check returns you haev to subtract that amount from $100 leaving you with -$2,700. Though if you had at least double that amount of money in your account you'll be ok. Just a heads up because I deal with this stuff all day, every day!