Winston Financial Management (Patricia Morgan & Manager Jennifer Sent me a fraudalant cashiers check to claim prize $ and vacation. I wired them $ and they stopped payment which my bank took out of my account Syracuse New York

On June 7 of 2007 I received a letter in the mail stating that my name was attached to a ticket V:7922 which drew the lucky numbers and won the prize in the 3rd. category. My prize was a Bahamas cruise with a lump sum of us $50,000 in cash acredited to Reference No: JN-17922. This was a total cash prize of 1 million dollars shared among 20 international winners in this category. Enclosed with the letter eas a cashiers check of $2,990.00 from one of the Financial Sponsers payable to myself. This check was to be used towards the processing of my total winnings for taxes and service charges.

The cruise was a 6 day and 5 night all-inclusive round trip to the carribean. I was told to contact Patricia Morgan at 1-778-552-3922 and I also spoke to her supervisor Jennifer at 1-778-552-4371 (Jennifers direct line.) At first no one called me back I had to leave a message. Then they were calling me every hour until the money was wired to them. We spoke once more and never heard from them again. About 2 weeks after that I got a voicemail when I called and it was Jennifers voice with the name of a different company but I could not understand what it was. The voicemail for them was always full.

On 6/10/07 I had a feeling that it was fraud because I did not receive my prize winnings so I closed by bank account which would take 24hrs. I explained to my bank why I was closing the account and don't let anything come out. Mind you they told me when cashing the check that it was o.k. and cashiers checks cannot be stopped or cancelled. Other wise I would not have cashed it just incase it was fraud.

On 6/11/07 my bank Bank of America mailed me a letter stating "The items below, which were deposited to your account, have been returned unpaid" The amount was $2,990.00. The check was from Citizens bank. Return reason was Altered/Ficticious. I called my bank on 7/16/07 because my bank took $356 out of my checking & $60 out of savings with authorizaion. They said they legally could even though the check was fraudelant and I was scammed. I was also told that I am responsble. My bank did not tell me they took out the money but instead let me make transactions with my debit card
for a week after removing the $356 and caused overdraft fees.

I was part of a awful scam that I did not see because I felt safe that I was not using any of my own money. I don't feel I should be responsible for all that money & I want some help with this problem. I was also told I can't close my account until there is a zero balance. I feel extremely unsafe about that. Who has an extra $3000 laying around in case they might get scammed. Please contact me and help me.

Stephanie
Palm Harbor, Florida
U.S.A.