Shoppers Direct Shoppers Point of sale sweepstakes tried to get me to cash a check that was fradulent Las Vegas , Nevada

I received a letter and a check today for the amount of $3,550.00 claiming that I won $50,500.00, It says in order to avoid delay in the processing of your payment, please remember to quote your claim number when contacting your claims agent, they also advise that you keep your claim number and your notification letter private until you receive your money, as this is a security measure designed to prevent false claim and unwarranted abuse of this program. It says the check enclosed of $3,500.00 is issued to me as a partial payment which was deducted from the total winning of $50,500.00 and to please call to activate the enclosed check before depositing at your banking institution. They also say the check was used to me by their sponsors to assist you in paying the amount of $2,500.00 which is the applicable sweepstakes tax and insurance associated with your winnings. So they want me to cash this check then send them $2,500.00 of it back to them.

I immediately knew that this was a scam and took it to my financial institution to have to look it over, which they agreed. They took a copy of the letter and the check to keep on file, I then called the number on the letter to speak with someone about this, the person had a very heavy accent to which I could hardly understand. I then told them I knew that this was a scam and that I had a police official on 3 way on the phone (I did not) he put me on hold, then came back to the line to say that my claim number did not match and I had not won anything, I told them I wanted them to tell me that this is a rip off, and reminded them again I had a police officer on 3 way, he then said plain as day, have the police officer suck your p***y! So all in all this is a scam if you receive one do not cash them and report it to your financial institution and to your local police.