Hi everyone….

Con-artists are in full swing promising the world, but will take your money without blinking an eye.

I have received several phone calls lately from viewers who have received a check in the mail with claims that they have won a foreign lottery.  The check is to be cashed to pay taxes on the award money.  If you deposit the check, which looks very legit, it will bounce, but not before you have wired the money to pay for the supposed taxes.  

Whatever you do, don’t cash that check!

Below is more information from the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs.   

Cash from a Con Man
By Bob McDonnell

The latest scam hitting Virginia puts a new twist on the original foreign lottery scam, and has heads spinning in Southside.

Meet Cindy Dean in Danville. She’d previously been told she had “won the Spanish Lottery,” and didn’t fall for it. She’d also “won $1 million in the Canadian lottery,” and didn’t fall for it… at first. Then she called the number on the letter, and spoke to a live person. “They made it sound real legit,” she said.

After talking with a guy calling himself “Internal Revenue Officer Michael Garcia,” Cindy was still wary about a scam to (1) tell her she has to pay taxes on the prize first, (2) send her a bogus check, (3) she cashes it and mails back a cashier’s check, (4) the check bounces at the bank, (5) she’s left in debt, and (6) the con artist gets rich.

But this was different. Building trust with Cindy, the con man sent her a magazine with $100 bills taped on the inside pages – totaling $2,900. She took the 29 bills to Wal-Mart to make sure they weren’t fake, and everything checked out.

At that point, Cindy says, she should’ve just kept the money. “I could’ve really used that.”

Instead of taking the money, Cindy unfortunately took the bait. She sent the money back to a supposed tax department, and before it was all said and done, she sent them $23,000, borrowed from her boyfriend. Despite being initially wary and taking precautions, Cindy had been scammed. We’ve investigated her situation, and worked with authorities to help Cindy out.

Cindy says she wishes she could scream to all Virginians: “Look out! You cannot win the ‘Canadian Lottery’ whatsoever!”

No matter how good your “award notification” might look, take time to investigate. They are not legitimate, and foreign lotteries and sweepstakes are violations of federal law.

If you’ve been victimized by the “Canadian Lottery,” call PhoneBusters immediately at 888-495-8501. Then please notify our office by completing our contact formor calling our Consumer Hotline, 800-451-1525.

We take consumer protection seriously in our office, and have people who can help with prevention and victimization. In an age of increased scams by mail, phone and the Internet, Virginians must be educated and vigilant.