VIRGIN LOTTERY Stephen Thompswon ripoff, Lottery Scham Sent me a bogus check for $ 3265.00 Alberta Canada
They sent me a letter saying I was the winner of $88,000.00 in the VIRGIN LOTTERY Inc. Board of Commissions.
Saying Federal Law and International Law reguires a clearance fee to be deducted before you receive your winnings.
Iwas sent a check for $3260.00 and told to cash it and send them a momey order for $3025.00 to a Lisa Johnson in College Park, Georgia.
I was to receive the balance Of $84,000.00 the next day delivered by UPS overnight mail.
I had many phone conversations with Stephen Thompson during the time it took for the bank to call me and tell me the check they had semt me was bogus. They kept assuring me my check would be here.
Wanda
Show Low, Arizona
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Dave
New Westminster,British Columbia,
Canada
Advance Fee Fraud
#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, August 14, 2006
It's too late to save your money, but hopefully someone sees your report and refuses to fall victim to these types of scams.
That phone number is a cell phone in the Greater Vancouver area in British Columbia. If you are sending the State Troopers to invade, have them come over this way. They can try our salmon rather than the Alberta mad beef.
Sorry you fell for one of these things.
Points for people to consider when trying to decide if they have actually won one of these phantom lotteries:
If there is no lottery ticket in your wallet / purse / wall safe, then you haven't entered a lottery. Don't let anyone tell you that you have won one without entering. Unless it happens in a brick-and-mortar building with the name of the lottery company in big letters. They don't give out big prizes over the phone.
Lotteries are promotions. The deal is that the winner gets the prize and the lottery company gets publicity. There is no reason for a lottery company to let people win in secret.
The US is the only place I know that deducts taxes from winnings. There may be others, but Canada isn't one of them. You get what you win. If there are taxes / fees owed, know that there would be a few documents to sign BEFORE paying the taxes. "Bob in Flatbush, SK" isn't a branch of any government and won't pay taxes on anybody's behalf.
Western Union, Money Mart, Postal Money Orders are the same as sending cash in an envelope to be left on a counter. Anyone can pick it up and open it without anyway to track who did it. Yes, these places check ID. But they have no way to determine that the people collecting the money are going to use it for the reason that it was sent. It is cash, and once sent, it is irretrievable.
Hugh
Paducah,Kentucky,
U.S.A.
this scam is as old as the internet
#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, August 14, 2006
A little research before you accepted their check would have told you this scam is as old as the internet.
In fact, the third email message ever send via the internet (Al Gore sent the first two) was about a deposed leaded in Nigeria that needed help getting his money out of the country.