Today, a co-worker / Friend of mine, whom is Hispanic, and doesn't speak nor understand English very well, asked me to look at this piece of paper, and this Check that was sent to him, dated December 04.
First I looked at the check, and it looked like an Honest, for real check! Made out to him personally, in the Sum of: $3,277.00. So, I read the paper that was from Readers' Digest, claming that he was the lucky winner of Reader's Digest Sweepstakes. The letter looked legit, with the company's name on the letterhead, and the "Reader's Digest" logo across the entire paper, kinda like a watermark of sorts.
Well, Long Story made short... The lucky numbers were 16-23-36-39-41, and the Winner's Payout was for: $187,092.00
The First Red Flag for me was, in the letter, it said to keep this letter and his winning of the sweepstakes "Confidential", and to call: 1-778-889-9480, and to speak to Reader's Digest Contacts: Barry Fisher or Carol Munco, BEFORE depositing the check into his bank account! Oh. And at the bottom of the letter, it had a picture of some guy, named: Ben Hainsworth Prize Disbursement Officer
Well I called the number today, and it sounded like the woman that answered the phone (whom didn't speak English very well either), was from one of those in-home answering services, because I could hear a young child in the background. And then it's like she hit a switch or button, and everything was quiet in the background!
I asked to speak to either Barry or Carol. She told me that they were both out of the office for lunch right now, could she have my name & phone number, so that one of them could call be back as soon as they got back into the office. I used my co-workers name, and told her that I couldn't give her my phone number, because I was at work, and I can't use my cell phone while at work. I told her that she probably had it on her caller I.D. Anyways!
I haven't heard back from either one of them as of yet. But after reading all of the other posts on usacomplaints.com, I really doubt I will! So much for keeping all of this Confidential by the way too!
Hey. If a Hispanic that speaks broken English, senses a rip-off in all of this that in itself, should tell you something! It's too bad that this kind of stuff goes on still today. It would have been nice for him to win the money, he could really use it! Heck, Who couldn't right now!?!?
And I want to know one thing, How & Why does Reader's Digest let this kind of Fraud go on like this??
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