Fisher, Payne & Associates for Comsumer Clearinghouse Ralph Fisher Declared winner of 2nd prize of $500.000 Georgia

This morning I was contacted by a woman with a Southeast Asian accent who informed me that i was the winner of the second prize in the "Comsumer Clearinghouse" lottery amounting to $500,000. Supposedly I should have gotten notice of this through the mail which I had not. She went on to tell me of the winnings and asked a lot of verification information of me, but not any critical data. She then passed me on to the senior atorney of the firm of Fisher, Payne and Associates, a firm  that claimed to be tax attorneys. Ralph Fisher, the attoney, then explained to me the situation. I was to get the check for my winnings by international courier in five days. The check would not be for $500,000, but for an amount reduced for federal taxes. Mr.  Fisher told me that the original tax amoubnt was to be $216,000, but the actions of his office by using a corpation loophole had reduced the taxes to $65,000.

To handle the payment on these taxes in order that I could received the money the Fisher firm had arranged for $5000 to be paid and asked that I provided the remaining $1500 at the appropirate time. First I was to call the "Federal Gaming Authiority" at a number provided by Mr. Fisher ((202)851-0028), then after confirming my winnings by giving them a claim confirmation number, Iwas to call him back for further instructions at (404)400-3614. The woman that I reached at the "Federal Gaming Authority" was named Nancy Rodeson. She told me that my claim was proper and she enthused about my winnings saying that virually all of the claims that she had checked in the past 3 years had been frauds exxcept for mine. She checked the background of the Fisher firm and said that they had processed a huge dollar value of such claims in the past couple of years. She told me that I should not send moneyto the law firm, but only to the financial institution which had the prize money. She then congratulated me on my good fortune. At this point I did my due dilligence.

I tried on'line to find the phione number for the "Federal Gaming Authority" and could  not find it. I tried to find the phone munber and/or website for the Fisher, Payne firm and could not find it. I then checked Ripoff Reports and found a simialr story to mine. I then contacted the Geaorgia State Bar and they told me that they had no attourney named Ralph Fisher listed as an attorney in the State of Georgia. With all of this in m mind, I called back to Ralph Fisher. I told him of my findings, as he reacted with indignation. I respected his indignation even though I suspected it was fained and asked for the address to where my $1500 would be sent. He said to send my $1500 in cash to Toem Channy in Cambodia who supposedly is the manager of the HSBC International bank there. I told Mr. Fisher that I would send the money even though I will not do so.

Please note that alll of my contacts this AM were very genuine sounding. The intial contact sounded right. Contacts with the main peop[le were through secretaries and lesser persons. The RED FLAGS to me was the name "Consumer Clearinghouse" which I had not heard of before versus the "Publishers Clearinghouse" which I knew of and had sent entries to and the fact that I was asked to send money in cash to an individual in Southeast Asia raher than the HSBC International bank who supposedly were holding the prize winning money. Of course the failure to find internet listings for the law firm, the Federal Gaming Authrity, and name of the attorney with the Geaorgia Bar even though the firm's telephone was in Georgia all told me not to send my money.