Mail scam - Beware

[Strong Bad]

I get home last night and check my regular USPS mail. I get this letter post marked from Canada with no return address. I open it to find a letter from "Prince of Wales Lottery Commission" and a check for $1998.98. The letter says I was one of the winners of a big lottery and the check should be deposited to cover taxes. Once that is taken care of, I'll get a lump sum check for about $80,000.

Throw up HUGE red flags!

Obviously, a huge scam. The kicker, the check is from a company called United Natural Foods, Inc. I checked the web and sure enough, this is a legit company. I just called their customer service dept and the guy checked with their accounts payable dept. They are fully aware of this scam and are trying to find out how their company got pulled into this with bogus checks.

So, if ya get this letter in the mail, have a big laugh and rip it up! United asked me to just shred the check and letter. I offered to send it to them, but they didn't want it.

Hey, I offered. Case closed for me!

John

[ohskigod]

sure would have thrown red flags up with me, but I dont get what the scammers hoped to accomplish. what would cashing the check (if it would even clear) do to benefit the scammers? I must be missing something.

[Strong Bad]

Yeah, really weird. What the letter says to do is deposit the check, then send them a check for the same amount, then they in turn will send you out the $80k winnings.

I would love to see if the check would clear, but I don't want any scam or illegal stuff to be traced to me and my bank account.

In the shredder it goes!

John

[ND13]

I got something similar, but not quite the same. Some chick in the UK sent me a letter asking me to help sell her paintings in my area of the US. In return, she sends me a check to deposit in MY checking account. Then I'm supposed to take 10% off the top for me and send her the rest. Sounds like a money laundering scam to me.(not your letter, the one I got)

[PolkThug]

Yep, they were trying to use you as the middle man. Then when the legit company bounces or cancels the check, you are left holding the bag.

[Willow]

DAMN those Canadians EH !;)

[Strong Bad]

DAMN those Canadians EH !;)

Yeah, WTF??? Do we have to put up guarded fences to keep you guys out too?

;)

[AndyGwis]

I almost got scammed this morning on some TX-OU tickets I found on Craigslist. Contacted them last week, they email me back this morning saying they have two tickets left but are in Miami on honeymoon and would ship using TNT service (supposedly safe).

So, called TNT, and they said to only deal with them if they can provide their TNT account number and said only to pay TNT, not to use Western Union or any wiring company.

I had emailed back and forth with seller all morning, but when I asked for their account number and what TNT location they'd drop tickets off to, the correspondence ended.

Also, re-read emails and there was strange grammar, inability to tell me what side (TX or OU) the tickets were on, and other fishy stuff.

Glad I checked. . . SOOOO, do you guys have any TX-OU tickets :)