I received a letter with a check for $1975.00 informing me that it was a portion of a $39,000 grant prize resulting from applications submitted as well as "a short list of candidates randomly selected from Readers Digest and Publisher's Clearing House databases". I was speculative but called the number given to me. I called and spoke to someone right away. He verified my claim # and told me everything that the letter stated without my having to give him any of the information. Sounded pretty legit. He then told me that my check was indeed real and that it had been activated and what I needed to do was put it in my bank and once it cleared I just needed to Western Union transfer $1,500 to a different person and address to cover my fees and taxes. That was my first red flag.
The envelope was post-marked from Canada with no return address, the company HQ is based in one city but I was supposed to send the fees to a receiver in another city and the check was drawn from a completely different company altogether.
I decided to do some homework and looked up the name of the company that the check was drawn on. That company was real but they informed me that the check was not, and their information had been compromised.
Thank God that I had the common sense to do some research before I was scammed and I am faxing the letter and check to the affected company so that maybe they can stop any further scams on their company or the public.
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