American Eagle Finance - Financial Trust Direct mail scam Fremont California

I received a letter with a check for $970.00, that looks very real, and the letter stated that this check was for the non-resident taxes for a charity lottery winnings of $100,000.00 that I have won. However, I was supposed to call a Processing Centre (and yes this word was mispelled in the letter) and provide a claim number (also provided in this letter) to lift the hold placed on the check, a security verification, and that the remaining $99,030.00 would be sent via FedEx as soon as this processing was completed.

Now this money that I have won was a $9 million total prize that I was supposedly to share with 36 declared winners.

I also noted that the letter showed the company was American Eagle Finance Inc., and the check showed American Eagle Financial Trust Inc. and also noted spelling errors.

Being curious as to the validity of this letter looked up the name of American Eagle Finance Inc., and found under Google this ripoff report site and found that there was someone else who had received a letter identical to mine except his check was for much more. And I also noted on the envelope the return address and postmark were from Canada.

I then went to Google Earth and searched the address on the check and found out (like the other person on ripoff report) that this address was for a hotel Econo Lodge.

Why would a legitament business, charity, or lottery work out of a Hotel? So I thought I would show that this same scam is still going on. Even the date of the drawing (August 20, 2007) was the same.

I hope somebody doesn't fall for this and I am going to email Dr. Phil and Oprah to see if they will announce this scam on thier shows to warn as many people as possible to not fall for this scam.

Carmen
Denver, Colorado
U.S.A.