Gold Star Securities Inc. Got my hopes built up for a let down Port ST. Lucie Florida

I got a call from my Dad asking if I had signed up for a sweepstsakes in Florida and I told him I think so it had beed a litlle over a year since I had been there. He then told me that I recieved a check for 4995.00 and that I was a finalist for 250,000.00 dollars ans that I would have to pay 2995.00 in taxes.

At this point I'm thinking it is a scam but my Dad is a ritired police officer and he told me the check looks legite. Well my Dad lives in Texas and I live in VA so now I'm thinking it really is a sweepstakes from a timeshare that I visited and gave my Dad's address as a prior home address.

I recieved the check from my Dad over the weekend and can't cash the check until today. The anxiety of everything that I was going to do with the winnings has been overwhelming. I really thought this was legite. Now I go to my bank, "Bank of America" and am told that it is a scam and that if they would have cashed it, they would have closed my entire account down.

Later I called the bank that was on the check and they didn't have a bank in the city where the check gave an address and the account number on the check was invalid.

Definate scam. I was wondering if anyone knew if ther e was a way to report them to the proper authorities? Thanks

Jack
Lorton, Virginia
U.S.A.