On Monday, April 27th I opened my mail box and was surprised to find an unassuming envelop with Canadian postage, which contained a very realistic looking award letter wrapped in a check for $4,922.00 from the Wagan Corp. DBA Honor International Corp 31088 San Clemente Street, Hayward California 94544.
The letterhead is from the North American Gaming Commission and basically, it states that I had won $276,000 in a sweepstakes draw. Automatically a red flag went up for me because I haven't entered or played any sweepstakes games. It's not something I normally do.
It gave a claim number and asked that I keep the information confidential. The instructions then asked that I contact North American Claims Agent Mr. Howard Mason at extension 1-866-461-6464 ext. 1 Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm est.
I sat in my office and called the number. A man identifying himself as Howard Mason answered the phone. I explained who I was and why I was calling. He asked if he could call me back because he was currently in the middle of a conference call. I agreed, gave him my phone number and hung up.
He called back after about ten minutes or so, although it was clearly after 6:00 at this point, and gave a very convincing spiel over the phone congratulating me on my good fortune. He then began to rattle off very specific procedures for claiming the money. He was very adamant that I should not tell anyone about the money and that I should deposit the enclosed check as soon as possible the next morning and then call him back so that he would know it was deposited. Apparently, this check is to cover the taxes on the $276,000. He went on to tell me that a camera crew would be at my house on Friday afternoon between 4:00-6:00 to deliver a giant check and record my reaction. All of his instructions were very specific.
Once I was off the phone with him I proceeded to call my husband, to no avail and then called my mother. When I told her about the strange conversation she told me right away that it was a scam, which I knew in the back of my mind, nut part of me wanted it to be true. The money would have really helped out with student loan bills and home renovations. While we talked, I googled the title "North American Gaming Commission" and the only results were of reports similar to the one that I am creating now. Not one shred of legitimate information anywhere. There were a few other organizations with names that were similar i.E. North American Gaming Association.
I folded the letter and the check an returned it to the envelope. My husband looked at it when he came home and was also surprised at the authenticity of the letter and the check. We both wanted it to be real.
For the next couple of days we did nothing. Then, Howard Mason called and left a message on our answering machine asking me to return his call. My husband couldn't wait until I got home to question Mr. Mason, so he returned the call and began firing questions at him about his organization and about the check.
According to the websites and reports that we viewed online the gist of the scam is that the "lucky winner" deposits the $4,922.00 check into their account which is to pay taxes and then calls back in order to receive the prize and then mysteriously all of the money is cleaned out of the bank account - the $4,922.00 and any other money that was in there.
Howard Mason ended up telling my husband that if we didn't want the prize money then it would go to a charity of their choice. He said that that would be fine with us and that was the last of the phone calls, so far.
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