Waterhouse Financial Services I recieved a letter and a check for 3,875.00 telling me i won 125,000.00. I contacted Mark Nelson and he told me that I needed to pay 1,875.00 in taxes and to send it by western union to two different names in the UK.

If it wasnt waterhouse financial services, Then who was it? 

I'm sorry that you fell victim to this type of scam, but these things have been going on for many years now, and there are constantly news reports, online warnings, and other articles written and discussed anywhere and everywhere in order to inform the public to help prevent anyone else from falling victim to this scam.

You have filed your report as being against TD Waterhouse - a well known financial institution, but they've had absolutely NOTHING to do with your situation!  The person who ripped you off is not an employee of Waterhouse, nor were they a representative of any legitimate financial corporation or banking institution....most likely, the person who scammed you was some guy from Nigeria or the Ivory Coast, who does his work from an internet cafe in order to prevent having an IP address that could be traced back to him.

It is widely known and constantly warned about online, that a person should never, ever, ever send money to a person unknown to you thru Western Union or MoneyGram.  In fact, anyone who asks you to send money to them thru a wire or using any type of a Western Union like money transfer, should be considered as highly suspicious - and you should always do your due diligence whenever you are considering sending money to anyone, anywhere! The "Advance Money Scam" is what you have fallen victim to - which consists of sending someone a check to cash, usually a money order - and then you are asked to keep some for yourself and wire the remainder back to the scammer, via Western Union.  The money order looks real, so the bank accepts it, cashes it, and gives you the money.  By the time the bank finds out that the money order is fake, you've already sent cash to the scammer and spent the part you had kept for yourself.  The only recourse the bank has is to take the money that they had given to you out of your account, as you become the responsible party for the loss, since you were the last one to sign that check when you presented it for cashing.

Remember that if something seems to good to be true, it usually is!  Why would anyone be sending you money for a lottery that you NEVER entered?  How can you win a lottery if you never purchased a ticket for it??  How can you win a contest that you never submitted an entry for?  You can't!  You didn't.  It's all a scam.

Do yourself a favor and go out and educate yourself on all of the scams out there.  If you Google "419 Scams", you'll be able to find all sorts of information.  ( It is called 419 because that number represents the region in Nigeria where it is believed the scams first orignated from).  There have been entire episodes of the Dr. Phil Show, the ABC news show 20/20, the CBC in Canada's "Fifth Estate", and other well known shows which have been dedicated to exposing these scams in great detail.  You might want to try to find an online episode of one of these shows that can be viewed on your computer, in whatever part of the world you currently reside.  I'm sure you'll find them to be extremely informative and a huge eye opener as to the levels of fraud that have been going on for some time now, as the amounts of money that people have sent to these scammers is staggering.

Again - I'm very sorry for your financial losses, but hopefully this is a lesson to you that can help many others who might come across this posting, and will be able to stop them from sending out their hard earned money to these total A-holes who should be in jail - or worse - should be tied to a pole in the middle of Times Square during the month of February - naked and exposed to below zero temps, where people can throw rocks at them or ice cold Slushees at them, or hot scalding coffee thrown into their face and eyes.  Too much?  I think not!  Let the punishment suit the crime!