I received a letter in the mail, stating due to the release of the 2006 Promotional Sweepstakes Lottery from Atlantic Lottery Corporation held on 12/30/06 in the 2nd category, a ticket with a serial number and lucky winning numbers which I had never seen before had won.
It goes on to say that many unsuccessful attempts have been made to contact me in the sum of $1,572,000 in which my winnings were $262,000. The provided me with a claim number, and a check, worth $4,922 and asked that I deposit it in my account and send them back half in lieu of taxes. They would in turn send me the remaining amount of my "winnings". Before I deposited the check, they asked that I call Mrs. Sara Rogers at the phone number listed which is 1-902-412-1749.
After calling the bank on the check, I found out that the check was a fake. I then called Sara Rogers back and she had to look into it, and would get back to me. I never once gave her my phone number, but she had it already. She then told me she would be mailing out a "draft" via Fed Ex. It took several days, many conversations sometimes heated on her end, to finally tell me that she was sending the check out that day.
I was never furnised with a tracking number, so I called the 800 number for Fed Ex, only to find that my address wasnt in the database, even international deliveries. I called Ms. Rogers back and she wasn't in, and I was asked to call back.
About 5 minutes later, I received a call from a Officer Stanley Williams at 705-777-0824, claiming to be a customs officer on the canadian side of Niagra Falls, who told me that they had received a letter addressed to me, and because of international security, do routine checks and opened the letter, containing 2 checks.
I was then informed that in order to release these checks from customs, I had to western union a Mr David Cook at 285 Maplewood Street Niagra Falls, Canada L2G3W8 with 1% of the total of the check $2,620.
I then called back to Ms Rogers and was told by her receptionist that once it left her office it was out of her hands and customs was in charge now. The phone number of Officer Williams traced back to somewhere in Canada no where near Niagra Falls.
This is a very poor excuse of a scam, and one of the first signs is that this lottery only applies to people from Canada and not the U.S. No personal information was given out and I beg anyone having the same or similar information to do the same. This is very dangerous and these people should be stopped.! THIS IS FRAUD! BEWARE PLEASE!!!!!
Karen
Brookwood, Alabama
U.S.A.