ING DIRECT I received an ING DIRECT scam letter Toronto Ontario

I received a letter in the mail from ING DIRECT (in Canada) about being a winner for the second category of Sweeppstake and Lottery Drawing held on April 16th, 2009. The gave me a claim number and a ticket with a serial number. They let me know that i was entitled to the sum of $450,000.00 and enclosed was a check of $4950.00 which was deducted from my winnings. The purpose of the check is to assist me to pay for the non resident government service tax. The taxes must be paid in full, before winnings can be legally released. Then there was a name of the tax agent and an address, at the bottom of the letter it told me to contact either debbie jones or scott douglas at 1-778-881-0539. I also told me not to act on this notice until i spoke with my agent. I was curious and called about 16 times and each time it told me that there was nobody available to help me at this time please try back later. I got onto the rip off report website and sure enough found more people who received these letters. So i tried the phone numbers that they were given and all of the phone number messages were the same. I called ING DIRECT to make them aware of the situation, i called the companies name that was on the check and left a message for the manager, and i also called the bank that the check was from. If you get letters like this make sure to call all of the companies involved because some of them are not aware that this is happening. The letter is too good to be true so please dont listen to what they are saying, IT IS A GIANT SCAM!

carrie
temperance, Michigan
U.S.A.