Today (3/31/08), I received a letter from a company called CTI (Commerce Trust, Inc.) supposedly out of New York City which advised me that I had not claimed a home improvement grant in the amount of $42,000.00 USD.included with this notice was a check from AM Transport Services, Inc. Written on a First National Bank in Olney check in the amount of $4,930.00. First off, I contacted the bank in Olney, Illinois to inquire if the check was good; I was told it was a counterfeit check and that the letter was a scam. Subsequently, I called the phone number for the bank given in the letter and after a lengthy program of punch button, a recording came on and "verified" that I had received a legitimate award and that the check was indeed good. Then I called the Secretary of State (New York) & inquired about Commerce Trust, Inc. I was told that there was no record of such a business in the state of New York. Then I called the New York Attorney General's office and inquired if they had any knowledge of a scam being perpetrated using the business name of Commerce Trust; I was told that they had received no reports of scams involving the names Commerce Trust, Inc. & AM Transport Services. I was, however, asked to fax them copies of the things I had received so that a file could be established. The Atty Gen'l representative then went on to tell me that this should also be reported to the U.S. Attorney General's office (fraud). I then went on the internet & traced the phone number given in the letter to a cellular phone in Ajax-Pickering, Ontario, Canada — an area near Buffalo and Toronto. It was then I noticed that the envolope which delivered the letter carried a Canadian postage stamp & had no return address. I believe these people have to be stopped, because they can inflict untold harm on the trusting and naive.
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