Publishers Clearing House Scam Martha Sterart Living Contest 3rd Place Scam Close call with very authentic looking prize letter, be ware Nationwide

Here is the full disclosure of what occured with my incident, My mother had just brought in the mail and opened a letter containing the letter claiming she had won the 3rd place prize in a contest be PCH, and she asked me to verify it on the web..

I looked for the local winners and anything on this so called Martha Sterart Sponsored contest, and found nothing, this made me very suspicious so i looked up any reports of similar letters or schemes that may have been reported, I was right several others have made very similar reports about this contest letter, Now in full is the details as well as I can give them.

The envelope was the first thing that made me suspicoius, It is a simple white envelope with a see tru corner panel to see the check. On the envelope is no return address, and a single stamp from canada, also the postage stamp bears this inscription
Appuyez la sante menala
Support mental health
081007 23:09 H4T 1A0 103

The check is very authentic looking and may in fact be a stolen check , its back is watermarked with the words Original document.
This is the imformation on the check as follows

Tom Joiner & Associates
517 Energy Center Blvd
North Port , AL 35473

Centura Bank
1407 W Ehringhaus St.
Elizabeth City, NC 27909

the check is in the amount of 5,340 dollars and appears to be signed, but upon inpsection I believe the signature is a stamped forgery,a rather good one at that..also the check has a gold hologram sticker giving it even more credability.

Now for the final piece of documention the letter itself.
It bears the Publishers Clearing House letter head and is on very heavy authentic looking paper the kind you might recieve if it were real, it reads for the most part The team of PCH is thrilled to officially announce your name as the third place winner of the 15 million dollar(15,000,000), Grand Prize Draw , sponsered by Martha Sterart Living Magazine

it reads further down that enclosed is a check to cover any outstanding fees not paid by PCH directly, it also tell you to contact your representative immiediatly, and to keep you security code highly confidential,

The names on this letter are as follows
Representative, : Mr. Jerry Wright

IRS agent : Mr. Arthur Pierce

and the letter is signed by a

Chief Finacial Officer : Cathy Stewart

also as a last note there is a very official seal that is gold and reads

International Awards Treasury

thank you for reading I hope this information can be of some help.

Thomas
Rockford, Illinois
U.S.A.