United Access Finanial Inc. Sweepstakes Fraud Midland Ontario

My husband was sent a letter addressed to him. He opened it to find a letter from United Access Financial Inc. International Claim department. who's address was 200 HWY 7, Midland Ontario with a TEL: of 1-905-598-2417.
The letter dated June 23, 2008 with a claim NO: DH/SUL-0011

The letter stated that it was a Winning Final Notification.

The letter was informing my husband that he was declared a winner of the SHOPPERS-SWEEPSTAKES held on May 5th, 2008.

They claimed to have made several unsuccessful attempts to notify him of this winning, and therefore claiming that my husband was entitled to the sum of $250,000.00 US DOLLARS. The letter stated that this is from a total prize money of $5 Million US dollars that was shared and presented among the other 20 declared winners. The letter noted that all the participants were selected through a random computer ballot system drawn from over 50,000 names. It included a claim number of DH/SUL-0011. The letter also included a check for the amount of $4890.00 US dollars and stated that it was deducted from his winnings.

The letter informed my husband that he would need to pay the applicable Government taxes on his winnings.

The tax amount was $2985.00 and to be paid by either Moneygram or Western Union.

The letter stated that he should not attempt to use the check until he called the claim agent immediately for further clarification within 5 business days.

The name on the bottom of the letter to call was LEWIS MCGREGOR, @ 1-905-598-2417 and signed by Mary Williams (Promotion Manager)

My husband called the number as indicated and spoke to a person by the name of Lewis. The claim agent asked for a phone number and the spelling of the last name. After this information was given to him, he instructed my husband to go and deposit the check into his bank account and then call him back for further instructions.

Upon this instruction, my husband began to ask questions like, why do I need to pay the taxes on the money before actually receiving the total amount of the sweepstakes winnings. My husband told the claims agent that he suspected some sort of scam and wanted to check with his attorney first before depositing the check.

At this point the claims agent stated that he would take his name off the Sweepstakes notification and told my husband not the do anything with the check because it wouldn't be any good, and then the claims agent hung up in a hurry before my husband could say another word. Smell like a skunk, looks like a skunk, so It must be a skunk. HA-Ha. Just thought I would throw that in.

Jo
Goodyear, Arizona
U.S.A.