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Ridgewood Marketing Inc Brian Mayers, Melissa Grey FINAL NOTICE on Consumer Rewards Program winning. Lump sum payout is US $35,000.00. Contact Claims Agent for further instructions. Pickering, Ontario
I received a cashier's check in the amount of $3,886.89 and a letter in the mail from a 'Ridgewood Marketing Inc' in an envelope with no return address, postmarked in Canada.
When I received this letter, I was immediately suspicious as I had not enrolled in any sort of cash rewards programs of this sort. I decided to call the number listed to ask more questions. When I dialed the number, the line kept ringing until the call was finally automatically disconnected. This confirmed to me that this was a scam. I decided to Google 'Ridgewood Marketing Inc' and was not surprised to come across the various postings on Ripoffreport. I also googled the name of the bank on the cashier's check along with the city and region for the company and came across the blog entry below:
The blog posting gave the number of the Canadian Police 1-888-495-8501 www.phonebusters.com
I would encourage anyone who receives a letter similar to the one I received to call into the Canadian Police and file a report as I have done. I was told to hold onto the envelope, letter and cashier's check in case the police need it for evidence sometime in the future. Also, be sure to write VOID across the cashier's check and your case no. on the letter.
What I have learned about this scam is this. The cashier's check is a fake. A REALLY good one at that, with watermarks made of pink heat sensitive ink. After depositing the cashier's check, your bank deposits funds into your bank account and sends the check to the original bank it was allegedly drawn off of. When it reaches the original bank, the bank determines the check to be fake and returns it to your bank. Your bank then reverses the deposit to your account. This process can take a week or longer.
While this is happening, you are instructed to send a 10% tax on the lump sum winning plus fees to the tax agent so your lump sum winning can be sent to you. I suspect that the 10% plus fees is roughly the amount of the cashier's check. If you do as instructed, you have now sent real cash to this company which you can never get back and you will never see a cent of the lump sum winning.
So whatever you do, DO NOT deposit the cashier's check and DO NOT wire money to anyone.