Raymond Cook John Cain PRIZE AWARD LETTER and CHECK for almost $3,000! Austin, Texas
My 89 year old mother-in-law got a letter from "Reader's Digest" saying she won a Sweepstakes Draw for $500,000 and to call Raymond Cook at 855-228-4356. The Letter said that they had failed efforts to contact her and included a check for $2,973.21 from AIG Annuity Insurance Company and BNY Mellon Trust of Delaware bank. The check was to cover any charges that may be required before she received her funds. She called Raymond Cook and he told her to deposit the check an call him back once she did that.
Instead she brought it to me and I checked the Reader's Digest logo on-line and instead of smaller letters for the Readers and larger letters for the Digest, it was just the opposite. Plus in very tiny letters above Reader's it said New Zealand. The letter had faded xerox looking logos in the corners and what appeared to be a xeroxed addition at the bottom that provided their hours of service. The letter was signed by a John Cain, Prize Disbursement.
The check looked like a real check but I told my mother-in-law that overall everything looked fishy. First I called Readers Digest and they asked me several questions and based on my answers they said the letter was not a valid Readers Digest Sweepstakes letter. A real letter from them would have her name and address in the letter, a particular reference to her winning #, and the envelope will have Readers Digest Sweepstakes info on it. The envelope was plain white with just her name and address on it. There was a ticket number and reference number in the letter but not in the format that Readers Digest uses for a real Sweepastakes winner.
I called AIG Annuity Insurance Company and was told that they do not insurance Sweepstakes and the check was not valid. They said they have gotten calls like this in the past. What the Scam company does is once the check is deposited they can get YOUR bank information and the check will not go through because it is not valid. You will not know that at first and they get you to pay the Taxes on winning $500,000. They also could potentially remove money from your account. If you fall for this, you lose all the "tax" money you paid them plus the check they gave you is no good.