Ok folks, here's how this scam works.
You get a letter in the mail from Tippton Solutions, stating that you won a sweepstakes via SuperPages.com.
In this letter are two checks, one for $1,680.25 and another for $12,220.18. These checks have the appearance of being issued from a legitimate Wells Fargo Bank, NA.
Also included in this letter is paperwork for a Surety Bond.
After you read the letter, you are instructed to telephone Victoria Lawson at 1- (403) 383-6568. If you do not get her answering machine, she will tell you, with a thick Phillipino accent and obviously on a cell phone, that the smaller check is for you to cash and that the larger check will require the surety bond paperwork to be filled out before the big check can be cashed. She will tell you that this prize is time-sensitive and that it only has another day or two before the award will expire.
Ok sounds good.
Hmmm, you say to yourself, maybe I should call the Wells Fargo Bank where these checks are issued from and make sure eveything is legit. So you call the telephone number on the check and a some guy, also with a thick Phillipino accent asks you for the check's acct. # and amounts. He will confirm that these checks are valid.
So what is the catch?
The catch is that the surety bond needs $1500 to accompany it before the $12,220.18 will be released.
The smaller check is for $1686.25, so Victoria tells you to keep the difference and only send her $1500. Geez, I got $180.25 so far for doing nothing. Not bad.
Scam.
The checks are not real. The second guy at the "bank" is really just some guy on a cell phone. The number listed on the "check" is his cell phone.
Scam.
You depsoit the small check into your checking account and send Victoria $1500 in real money. After all, you want to get the $12,220.18 and you only have two days left. Better hurry.
Scam.
By the time your bank notifies you that the Wells Fargo check for $1680.25 is fake, Victoria already has your $1500.
Call the FBI, Call the U.S. Postal Police, Call your AG.
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