DMUS FINANCIAL SERVICES & CONSULTANTS - Commerce Bank, They sent me a check saying I have won $3995.75 New York New York

search the internet on Sweepstakes or Lottery Scams and you will find thousands of posts about it. Some from those who fell for it and some from those who TOOK THE TIME TO CHECK IT OUT FIRST.

You know your bank can tell you? DO NOT DEPOSIT IT. Just take it the bank and ask them to verify it. Most banks are already aware of this scam too.

Calling a local branch office the bank listed on the check can also help.

search the internet on Sweepstakes or Lottery Scams and you will find thousands of posts about it. Some from those who fell for it and some from those who TOOK THE TIME TO CHECK IT OUT FIRST.

You know your bank can tell you? DO NOT DEPOSIT IT. Just take it the bank and ask them to verify it. Most banks are already aware of this scam too.

Calling a local branch office the bank listed on the check can also help.

search the internet on Sweepstakes or Lottery Scams and you will find thousands of posts about it. Some from those who fell for it and some from those who TOOK THE TIME TO CHECK IT OUT FIRST.

You know your bank can tell you? DO NOT DEPOSIT IT. Just take it the bank and ask them to verify it. Most banks are already aware of this scam too.

Calling a local branch office the bank listed on the check can also help.

search the internet on Sweepstakes or Lottery Scams and you will find thousands of posts about it. Some from those who fell for it and some from those who TOOK THE TIME TO CHECK IT OUT FIRST.

You know your bank can tell you? DO NOT DEPOSIT IT. Just take it the bank and ask them to verify it. Most banks are already aware of this scam too.

Calling a local branch office the bank listed on the check can also help.

I got a call one day at work from my wife - who told me we had just received a real check in the mail for almost $4000. I asked her if it was a REAL check, and she assured me that it looked very real - it was to be drawn on Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.

The letter accompanying it said that we had won some foreign sweepstakes (we had never entered), and the company sending us the check was tasked with seeing that the winners were notified and that we could collect our money from the sweepstakes. The way it worked was that they had been trying to contact us for months and had finally found us - we were going to lose our big prize money if we did not contact them within 3 days - the year after the lucky number was drawn was almost up. The check was to cover our expenses for obtaining own money from the company that was holding our winnings - their fee for administering the payout. We were going to have to call this woman at a (Canadian) phone number in the letter and make the arrangements to wire the $4000, for which we had already been re-imbursed.

I got home from work and took a look at the check -it did look quite real - it was a real check on real check stock. Being that it was the beginning of a holiday weekend weekend and I only had 3 days to collect my winnings I was of course panicked when I couldn't reach anyone at the number in the letter. I tried leaving a message and the mailbox was full.

Well - the weekend passed and I tried again on Tuesday - I figured I missed out on my big winnings, but I would try anyway - same thing - the number was there, but the mailbox was full.

I was thinking about depositing the check into my bank account - at least if I didnt get my big winnings I would be $4000 ahead, right?

Then I started thinking about all the oddities around this whole thing:
1) Was this some sort of scam - how could it work? I had a real check for $4000 in my hand after all.
2) What sweepstakes - I had never entered a sweepstakes - much less a foreign one.
3) the story sounded plausible - a company seperate from the sweepstakes was responsible for holding the funds and releasing it to the correct, verified winners - I could see them charging a fee for something like that.

EXCEPT, I had some nagging feelings:
I would have expected the sweepstakes to pay the other company, or to have it deducted from my big payout - not have me pay them with money the sweeptakes sent me. If they could send me a check for $4000 and they found me - why couldn't they just send me the whole thing? If they could trust this other entity to pay out my huge jackpot - why couldnt they trust them to deduct the agreed fee from my winnings when they paid me?

So I started doubting. What if this is a scam? Well I still had their check, right? Then it occured to me that I had heard horror stories about people being suckered into calling foreign phone numbers, and then being billed hundreds of dollars per call like a 900 number. I started freaking out - how many times had I called that number, only to get a mailbox full message? Would I get a really nasty phone bill next month? Fortunately that never happened - just regular long distance on the bill.

So - I considered just depositing the check - whats the worst that would happen - they would tell me it was not good, right? Maybe charge me a $25 bad check fee? Maybe it was real and I would have another $4000 - was it worth trying? Would I be committing fraud if it was a bad check? It certainly looked real.

So - I decided to call my Attorney General's office, and I actually spoke to someone - they told me it was 99.9% likely that it was fake. They had heard this story before - the nagging suspicions I had were right. Not wanting to give up my newly found $4000 I asked how it's possible when they sent me a REAL check?

Here is the explanation they gave me - These people usually operate on foreign soil, and there is nothing much the US can do. The premis is that they send you a real looking check with a plausible story - you feel safe in going along with the scam because you are convinced it is a REAL check. The check IS real - it's a fraudulent check printed on real check stock with possibly a real Bank name and logo on it, real looking routing numbers - security features, ethe whole works - but it is no good.

There is an element of rushing here too - you have 3 days to claim your money or you lose it all. They get you all uptight about getting that money before it is gone forever - You are supposed to deposit the check, call the number, talk to someone who is going to tell you how to wire the money to the right place, and they will send you the paperwork to get your winnings - the important thing is to get that money to them right away to hold your winnings. The thing is - you have wired them your REAL money from your real bank account - but you have deposited a phoney check into the bank.

The phoeny check won't be detected at the branch - it's a real check - just no good. The check may even have routing numbers to get it as far as the Federal Reserve Bank - if it ggoes through your own Bank's sorter and is routed to the Fed it might be 3 or 4 days before it gets to a point in the System where you are notified that it is a fraudulant check. The fed hits you for a $50 fee and your Bank may also hit you foe a fee.

In any case, no $4000 for you, but you do get to pay some fees. On top of that you have wired $4000 of yourr money to some untraceble person in another country.

I don't know all the details of what you received with your check - but it sure sounds a whole lot like what I got in the mail, so be careful.

Hope this helps!