Hanfield Financial Group Consumer's Reward Program
Is a cover for a scam involving sending bogus checks as partial payment of a non-existent prize to induce individuals to send most of that sum back for 'taxes'

I received an unsolicited letter from Hanfield Financial Group informing me that I was a $39000 winner in a Consumer's Reward Program Lottery held on October 24. Along with the 'Final Notification' letter was a check drawn on an account for Estech Systems, Inc. For the sum of $3900, and a phone number 905-598-2505 to call to claim the award (a claim number was provided, too). I called the number and spoke to a gentleman named Robert Pirez who directed me to deposit the check in a personal account and call back in a couple of days after the check had cleared. I did so, and when I reached Mr. Pirez (if that is his name) he directed me to send $3300 to his attention at 132 Janes Street, Hamilton, Ontario M2K3S5, CANADA for 'payment of taxes'. I was given explicit instruction how to send this money via MoneyGram, rather than a simple wire transfer or electronic transfer, 'to protect my bank account number'. This sounded fishy at best, so I asked my tax accountant about it, and she said it sounded like a scam she had heard about. Then, on the complaint website I found that others had received the same bogus letter about this Consumer's Reward Lottery (for the same amount of prize money), so I notified my bank that the check I had deposited was probably no good. This is a really clever, sophisticated scam that almost sucked me in. I am grateful that the information about this operation was readily available at complaint! My advice: if you think somebody is giving you money for nothing, they probably aren't!

Company: Hanfield Financial Group Consumer's Reward Program
Country: USA
State: New York
City: New York
Address: P.O. BOX 21793, Station B
Phone: 9055982505

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