Star Capital Securities Inc. Scam involving a letter of alleged American Shoppers Sweepstakes Chatham Ontario Canada
My wife received this letter which claims she is a winner of AMERICAN SHOPPERS SWEEPSTAKES for $125,000 US dollars. Enclosed with the letter is a check for $4,875.00 from an account with Commerce Bank in Lebanon, MO.
The letter requests a payment for $2,975.00 by Moneygram or Western Union to pay taxes. It is requested to do nothing with the check before calling Mr. George Stanley (Claim Agent).
This letter is a fraud for the following reasons.
1) The check is ungauranteed. It could bounce. By law, the $4875 cannot be used for anything until after the check clears and is in the recipient's account. Moneygrams and Western Union are gauranteed money. So the recipient is being pressured to send gauranteed money in exchange for ungauranteed money, which is illegal.
2) Winners of sweepstakes are responsible for paying the taxes themselves. If money sent to someone else to pay taxes is not paid to the IRS, the sweepstakes winner is still obligated to pay the IRS. In order to pay taxes, your Social Security Number is needed. Giving that out sets you up for major identity theft and fraud problems.
3) The address of 1957 King Street, Chatham Ontario, K1P-5R7 does not exist.
The zip code is for Ottawa, Ontario, Canada which is many miles away from Chatham-Kent. There is no Chatham in the Ottawa area. You can find this out on the internet.
My suggestion to everyone is to deposit the check into a new savings account where this is the only money in it and wait to see what happens. DO NOT SPEND ANY OF IT! You cannot lose any money in any other account. When the check bounces, send it the State Fraud Division along with the letter you received. DO NOT CALL THE CLAIM AGENT LISTED ON THE LETTER!
You are not breaking any laws by depositing the check and are not exposing yourself to risk by putting in a special-purpose holding account that has no other money in it. The Government needs proof of fraud, and the bounced checks along with the letters are the needed proof.
Rich of chicago
Streamwood, Illinois
U.S.A.