Reported and Web Produced by:
John Matarese Updated: 07/7/08
This must be a very lucky time of year! Many viewers tell me they recently opened up their mail to learn they've won a Foreign Lottery. Did you win too? Great...so did all your neighbors.
In every case, though, it turns out to be a scam.
There are several different versions of it.
Lotto Scam: he one that's snaring the most people right now is an check that shows up saying you have won a FOREIGN LOTTERY, usually from Spain, Canada, or England. They send you a check for around $4,000. They want you to cash it, then wire some back to pay taxes.
The check will bounce in 3 to 4 weeks, leaving you owing your bank 4 thousand dollars.
Mystery Shopping Scam: You get a great offer to be a Mystery Shopper at Wal-Mart and other stores. The company sends you a check for $4,000, and asks you to cash it and wire it back through the MoneyGram or Western Union service at Wal-Mart, to see how well their employees do their job. Guess what? You are not testing anything. You are wiring your own money to a scam artist. When your bank tells you the $4,000 check bounced, YOU will owe your bank $4,000 cash.
Car/Boat/Tractor for Sale Scam: It can also happen when someone makes an offer to buy a car, boat, bicycle, etc. you have posted on Ebay or Autotrader. They tell you they want to pay you MORE than your asking price, and ask you to wire back the extra cash. This is a scam: the check is always bogus, and you will be out hundreds of dollars.
Or they advertise a car for well below Blue Book value. A 2005 Honda Accord for $2,000? Its probably a scam. They dont have the car: they just copied and pasted info from someone elses ad. What they want is for you to wire a deposit. Then they disappear.
Job Opportunity Scam: And it even happens on job hunting sites like Career Builder and Monster, where you will be offered a great opportunity with an "international" company just getting involved in the US market. Except in those cases, they also dig for your Social Security number...because they would love to steal your identity while taking your cash.
Roomate Scam: Finally, you can be victimized if you are advertising for renters or roommates for an apartment. The "interested person" is usually in England or Canada, and wants to send you an advance check to hold the apartment.
These are run by "professional' scam outfits in Africa, and their goal is get thousands of dollars from you. Almost everyone with an email address is receiving them. All you can do is delete these: the FBI has thousands of copies of their letters and checks.
We have reported on these scams many times, and will continue to do so periodically.
