On Monday, May 18 I got a phone call at 1pm from a man named Ricardo Reid. He said I won $350,000.00 from the American Direct Sweepstakes Company. He told me to Western Union him $400.00 to account number 17029791788 by depositing the money to the Merchant Bank. I was told I had one hour to do the deposit and then someone would be coming to my home to give me my winnings. He said that I could call him back at 1-876-352-9299 when the Western Union was done. After careful consideration I called the Better Business Bureau and found out that this was a scam. I then called the police and filed a report. I was told that I would probably not hear from them again because they might know that I figured out it was a fraud. I felt some what upset that I had given the man my husbands name and answered some of the questions he had asked on my first call from him. Even though he already had most of my personal information. Thank God I did not give him a bank account number. Then around 9pm the same day I got another call from the American Direct Sweepstakes Company. The man this time said his name was John Meyers. He wanted to know what happened. And asked why I had not Western Unioned the money yet. He said he was tired of me wasting his time. He told me that I needed to give him the name of a charity and that he would donate my winnings to the charity of my choice. I told him I filed a police report with my local sheriff and that I called the Better Business Bureau. He got very angry with me and said that I should not have done that. He told me that he was legal and that I again was wasting his time. He said that this was the system they used and if I wanted the money all I needed to do was to send the $400.00 through Western Union. I told him that if he came to my home I would give him the money, he said he could not do that and the only way I could get the winnings was to send the $400.00. I started to get a little scared by the tone of his voice so I told him to leave me alone and that he can call the Better Business Bureau himself and find out the same information I did. I then hung up the phone on him. I was upset by the call and bothered that someone had tried so hard to scam me. I made a second call to the police and left a message with the reporting officer I talked to the first time. How do I know he does not have more information on me and that he won't try something else. He told me my address, name, age, phone number, and knew that I was a US citizen. This part scares me. What can I do to prevent this from happening again?
Mary kay
Breckenridge, Michigan
U.S.A.
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