Complaint Review: International Claim Department

Don't cash or deposit any of those fake checks you get as an advance to pay the taxes on money you have supposedly won. If you did deposit the check don't spend any of the money.

Here's why. The check will come back to your bank as a fake and the bank will debit your account the amount of the check without any warning. It may take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks for the check to fail to clear and be returned to the bank it was originally deposited in. In any case you'll be out however much money the original check was for and be responsible for any bounced checks you may have written against the balance.

Nationally syndicated talk show host Clark Howard has been alerting his listeners for years about these fake check scams. He tells listeners about people getting checks for way more than their selling price for stuff they are selling in classified ads with the story from the "buyer" that they should just say cash the check and send the difference back to them by western union.

These advance checks are similar in nature where you get a check for $3000.00 and you call a phone number for instructions and whoever answers the phone tells you to wire them $2000.00 back to them or they just ask you to write them a check for the difference out of your account and BAM your out $3000.00 plus the bounced check fees from your bank.

Don't do it, you haven't won anything. The only thing you're going to get from this is poorer.

Don't cash or deposit any of those fake checks you get as an advance to pay the taxes on money you have supposedly won. If you did deposit the check don't spend any of the money.

Here's why. The check will come back to your bank as a fake and the bank will debit your account the amount of the check without any warning. It may take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks for the check to fail to clear and be returned to the bank it was originally deposited in. In any case you'll be out however much money the original check was for and be responsible for any bounced checks you may have written against the balance.

Nationally syndicated talk show host Clark Howard has been alerting his listeners for years about these fake check scams. He tells listeners about people getting checks for way more than their selling price for stuff they are selling in classified ads with the story from the "buyer" that they should just say cash the check and send the difference back to them by western union.

These advance checks are similar in nature where you get a check for $3000.00 and you call a phone number for instructions and whoever answers the phone tells you to wire them $2000.00 back to them or they just ask you to write them a check for the difference out of your account and BAM your out $3000.00 plus the bounced check fees from your bank.

Don't do it, you haven't won anything. The only thing you're going to get from this is poorer.

Don't cash or deposit any of those fake checks you get as an advance to pay the taxes on money you have supposedly won. If you did deposit the check don't spend any of the money.

Here's why. The check will come back to your bank as a fake and the bank will debit your account the amount of the check without any warning. It may take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks for the check to fail to clear and be returned to the bank it was originally deposited in. In any case you'll be out however much money the original check was for and be responsible for any bounced checks you may have written against the balance.

Nationally syndicated talk show host Clark Howard has been alerting his listeners for years about these fake check scams. He tells listeners about people getting checks for way more than their selling price for stuff they are selling in classified ads with the story from the "buyer" that they should just say cash the check and send the difference back to them by western union.

These advance checks are similar in nature where you get a check for $3000.00 and you call a phone number for instructions and whoever answers the phone tells you to wire them $2000.00 back to them or they just ask you to write them a check for the difference out of your account and BAM your out $3000.00 plus the bounced check fees from your bank.

Don't do it, you haven't won anything. The only thing you're going to get from this is poorer.

NEVER cash a check that:
1- is from someone you do not know (aka, a stranger)
2- you were not even expecting in the first place
3- is not for any apparent reason
4- has not been first cleared by YOUR BANK (not the check writer!) as okay to cash

You may be "broke," but incorrectly thinking that you've come across free money and gleefully cashing that check will only push you even further into debt.

You are correct in thinking that US taxes would be paid by you to the US Gov't. and not to some Western Union office somewhere in Canada.

Once someone hands money to Western Union, anyone anywhere in Canada can pick it up after showing "appropriate" ID if they know the Money Transfer Control Number. That's one of the "features" that Western Union offers. It doesn't matter what address the transfer has on it.

File a report with FTC and local police so that your bank doesn't think that YOU were trying to scam THEM. Don't touch the money.

Telephone number 1-647-3049

Telephone number 1-647-3049

Telephone number 1-647-3049