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You May Not Be A Winner: More Scam Letters Arriving In North Escambia
April 3, 2009
More scam letters promising big prize winnings are arriving in North Escambia area mailboxes, but officials say that the enclosed official looking check to cover fees or taxes in order to claim the prize is fake.
Several North Escambia residents have fallen victim to the scam letters, losing thousands of dollars each in the process.
The latest round of letters appears to be from Publishers Clearing House, claiming that the recipient has won a grand prize drawing of $1 million. Although the letters and checks look official, the recipient is the target of a scam making a nationwide appearance.
“Not surprisingly, the revival of this scam comes on the heels of the real Publishers Clearing House awarding a New Jersey woman $5,000 a week for the rest of her life,” said Norman Wright, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Northwest Florida. “Scammers often take advantage of events in the news, such as Publishers Clearing House giving out a prize, knowing it’ll be on top of people’s minds.”
Victims receive a letter supposedly from Publishers Clearing House claiming that they have won $1 million as the second place winner of a drawing sponsored by Reader’s Digest Magazine. The letter is accompanied by a check for as much as $5,900 with instructions to call a Publishers Clearing House representative. Victims are told that they must cash the check and then wire approximately $4,000 to Publishers Clearing House in order to receive their prize. However, the check is fraudulent and money wired to the scammers cannot be recovered.
Since early March, reports of the Publishers Clearing House scam have come in from 20 states including Florida. Some have also reported receiving phone calls from scammers pretending to be with Publishers Clearing House.
Other scam letters received by North Escambia residents have been from Royal Trust Cooperation and Guardian Financial. The Guardian Financial letters cost at least six North Escambia residents over $3,000 each back in February. Read that story here.
Pictured below: A copy of a scam letter that attempts to convince the recipient that they have won $1 million from Publisher’s Clearing House. Pictured above: Checks like this arriving in North Escambia mailboxes are fake and totally worthless. Submitted graphics for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
4 Responses to “You May Not Be A Winner: More Scam Letters Arriving In North Escambia”
I received one of these letters last Tues, from Alliance Financial Corp, a “division of Publishers Clerning House”. It had a Canadian postmark, so I was given the phone # of the Canadian Consumer Protection div. by my state Attorney General’s Office. The Canadian rep who called me back said it was a scam and please to notify all my friends as people were receiving these letters and not checking the validity and getting scammed.
These “scamming idiots” are really getting on my nerves…they need to get a real job and quit ripping people off !!!
“Enclosed in this letter is a certified check to cover any outstanding fees that HAS not been paid by PCH directly.” Anyone else see? Carry on.
My son received one of these. His was from A.M.G. Group a division of Citi Group Financial. I e-mailed the bank in Jacksonville that the check was drawn on to inform them of the scam. They requested copies and I sent them.The key is to look where your letter was mailed from. The” Miami ” based business mailed their letter from Canada.