Complaint Review: Shipco Financials

A fabricated financial institution sent me a letter and a fraudulant check. The letter was postmarked from Canada but the fake letter head said ShipCo Financials -a Division of ShipCo Transport INC Washington Street Hoboken , NJ 07030 . The letter was addressed to me. It was dated September 12, 2008 and had a reference number on it of 'Ref #SWF/888/WD.

The body of the letter read as follows:
We are pleased to inform you through this letter that our network shows you as the lucky winner of an unclaimed price money in the amount of One Hundred Thousand Dollars(100,000.00) in United States Funds. The system indicates that your name was randomly selected through a computerized ballot system as a winner for the SECOND QUARTER of 2008 Sweepstake draw. Congratulations!!!

All participants were selected through a computerized ballot system drawn from Readers Digest, Publishers Clearing House, Online Sweepstakes, Internet Games etc.....

Enclosed, is a check for ($3,989.45) which covers both the 3.6% administrative taxes and Clearance fees of your winnings. For authorization and activation of this check, please contact your agent Sean Peter or Michelle Robinson immediately at Tel:1-647-878-0934 Your winnings must be claimed not later than September, 25 2008.

Your name is attached to claim Number US/CA/ZDS55-00G. We advise, you keep your claim number confidentially secured until your claim is processed and Funds remitted, as this is part of our security protocol.

Please, remember to quote your Reference Number in all correspondence with us in other to avoid unnecessary delays. Congratulation again from our staff and sponsors.

Signed Rita Howell
Claim Specialist
Phoenix Financial



When I followed the instructions of the letter by calling the number, they did not sound legit could not answere my inquiries and very un proffessional I thought to myself as the women did not answere the phone with company name first that was my first tip off something was wrong and the women Michelle Robinson stammered to much intuition told me it was because she was lying. I hung up and started my research to find that it was a scam by using the name Rita Howell claims specialist.

How it works when you call and talk to them, they tell you to deposit the check and call them back when you call them back to say that you have deposited the check they tell you to send them a money gram for that amount of money $3,989.00 and send it to a tax agent named Barbra Wallace whom has no phone number just an address 1501 Broadway.When I called the women Michelle on the fact that was sketchy and stated how I could simply file the taxes myself the stammering began again and she hung up the phone .

Darrin
San Diego, California
U.S.A.