Atlas Financial Trust, Inc - North American Shoppers Sweepstakes RE: SWEEPSTAKES FINAL WINNER! Chatham Ontario

I received a letter in a totally plain white letter-sized envelope with a Canadian postal stamp in the mail. The letter said that I was one of 36 declared 2nd category winners of the North American Shoppers Sweepstakes and had won my portion of a $9 million dollar prize, which came to $250,000.

With the letter was a check for the sum of $4,875 that I was supposed to cash and use to pay for the taxes on the prize money which came to $2,975.

Before cashing the check, I was directed to call a claim agent at:(647) 219-2078, which I did. The woman that I spoke with, supposedly a Mrs. Carol Armstrong, sounded very legitimate and informed me that my name had been entered when I had made purchases at such stores as JCPenney, Sears, Kohl's, etc.

She was very difficult to hear - there was a lot of background noise and it seemed like she was located quite a distance away (supposedly Ontario, Canada). She told me to go ahead and deposit the check and not to share the claim number with anyone.

According to the letter, once the winnings were processed, I would be receiving a check for the remaining amount - $245,125 via FedEx.

I just went online tonight to see if I could find anything out about this. I found the Ripoff Report website with reports about this exact company. So a big THANK YOU to all who have previously reported this scam and a warning to others not to be ripped off by it.

Lori
Taylor Ridge, Illinois
U.S.A.