America Direct Sweepstake Morris Andrews, Stated that I had won 250,000.00. Sent in an entry form for $5.00 and needed to send them 2,500.00 so them could process to winnings. Lachene Internet

That is all good advice. I would add one more thing. IF ANY person or company asks or insists that yousend them cash by wire (Western Union, Money gram) it is ALWAYS a scam. IF the contest or whatever is legitimate you NEVER have to pay money to get your money. That should also be a very bing red flag. These people operate on the idea that there is a suckeer born every minute and even if 100 eople don't fal for it, whey will probably get several that do and as long as they do, the scam will keep going on.

There is so much of this type of stuff on here. Do all these people live in caves? There is stuff about these scams all the time in the paper, on the web an on the news.. And if all that fails COMMON Sense should prevail over greed and need.

I get a lot of those letters in my spam email box. Sometimes I read them jsut for a lark but I KNOW BETTER. I don't think that the police or the Feds can do much since these scams are started by people in othere countries, especially Nigeria, and now I think Russia, too

YOu could go to your local consumer affairs reporter on your local tv station and they might do a piece on it. But then again, probably no one will be paying attention anyway.

You were scammed. You need to contact your state's attorney general.

These kinds of crimes are happening more and more often, because people believe that they've actually won.

They tempt you with a large "prize" and to see if you will bite for the "entry fee". If you pay the entry fee, they will dangle a bigger carrot in front of you, and ask for more money, and when you pay that, they will run off and disappear.

You see it more through email (somehow I got on a mailing list, and get about 5 or 6 of these international lottery things a day, but they go unread and into the trash) than through regular mail, but I'm sure it happens there also.

In the future:

When you play a "lottery" or a "Sweepstakes" YOU have to be the one to put your name on the list (Like with Publisher's ClearingHouse), or YOU have to physically go down to the corner store and get a ticket yourself. Lotteries are generally state funded or casino funded, and you can check the BBB website for reputable sweekstakes companies, if you want to try to win bazillions on your own.

In other words, if you don't remember buying the ticket or putting your name on the list, you are probably being scammed.

Secondly, companies like PCH do not require you to hand them a couple thousand dollars to 'process the winnings'. If PCH is going to give you several million, I'm fairly sure that they are going to be able to process the winnings without money from you first. That should have been your second red flag.

Third, the state lotteries and reputable companies such as PCH will spell your name correctly, and not address their correspondence to "Dear Sir/Madam" and will have their spelling and grammar correct.

Reputable companies will not ask for your bank account numbers. If you gave them that information, especially if you sent them a check, contact your bank, close the accounts, put a fraud alert on the closed ones, and open new ones. You are now at risk for identity theft.

Reputable companies will not call you every day to make sure that you are keeping up your end of the agreement. They will assume you have the common sense to do your part without reminders.

Companies like the one you reported like to prey on the vulnerable, and as I said before, will use a small carrot of an "entry fee" to see if you are going to even think about playing.

Question: Why did you have to send an "entry fee" *after* you've already won? Shouldn't you have to fill out the entry fee before hand? That is usually how you get your name on the list in the first place...or you have to buy a ticket, one of the two.

Right about now, you are realizing that they took you for a ride, you are never going to see the big bucks and you are out the 2500. Right? Yes, but.

You have recourse. Take all of their letters, whatever phone records you have, cancelled check, copy of the money order, addresses, etc, and file a complaint with the state attorney general. Go file a police report also, because you will need that when you file an FTC complaint, because this falls under their jurisdiction also.

The last thing you need to do is to learn the difference between legit mail and junk mail, both in your mail box outside and your email inbox, and learn what a scam is and how to avoid them (there are lots of good websites out there that can help with this, snopes.com is one of them).

Good luck. You have a lot of work ahead for you.