Here’s the stage. You receive an envelope in the mail. It says you won the lottery and enclosed is a check for $3,453.00. Along with that is a number you are to contact to discuss taxes and fees with the promise of more money as time progresses. Would you cash it?

What if the envelope was from Canada and the lottery was Canadian? Would you still cash it?

What if the envelope was from Canada, the letter was from Sweden regarding a Canadian lottery?

Finally, what if all the above is true, plus the check was from an American educational company drawn on Illinois Wells Fargo bank?

If you answered an honest “no,” then consider yourself in the 1% of people who receive these letters.

In the past week, I have received 2 similar letters and immediately I was suspicious. First, as I have mentioned before, I don’t gamble or play the lottery. How would I win a lottery, and a Canadian one at that? Plus the checks don’t match any of the other strange facts on the letter. I thought they might be stolen and as it turns out, they are.

I called the police to let them know I think the checks might be stolen. I had an officer come out to my house yesterday to acquire them and talk with me a bit. (Let me just say that this was the HIGHLIGHT of my boys day. “Do you shoot robbers and bad guys?” “Do you get people for speeding?” etc, etc)

What the officer told me was shocking and sad all at the same time. He said that first off, most people who receive these letters have been emailing back and forth with the senders for quite a bit of time. I reassured him that I had done no such thing that I was aware.

Of the people who receive this letter, 99% will cash the check. Of the 99% there are 2 categories of people. In the first category is people who truly believe this to be real and believe the scam. The second category is people who have an inkling that this might not be on the up and up, but cash it to see if they can get away with some money.

Then these people end up getting criminally charged because they cashed a stolen check. They come to the law crying saying they didn’t know better. They now owe the money to the companies from which the check was stollen and have usually sent part of it back to the scammers to pay “taxes” and spent the rest.

The true scammers get away, unscathed and a little bit richer. I was told it is almost impossible to track down these people, which most of the time happen to be the infamous Nigerian con artist.

I felt good turning the letters in, trying to help catch the “robbers” and “bad guys,” but a little concerned, too. While the letters and checks were made out to an alias that I often use, they did have my address. The officer also warned me to be prepared for phone calls. I don’t like the idea of these people having my information.

Anyone else have anything like this happen to them?

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