Hey folks. I figured I would drop the story in my blog to help prevent anything bad from happening to any of you. Today in the mail(USPS) my fiance and I received a letter in the mail with a real check for $3,800. The $3800 was 10 % of the money we won in an online contest for "WalMart.com" customers. The check comes from a real and legit bank called Johnson Bank in Racine, Wisconsin. The company who is a fraud is called "Shoppers Lotto." (they use RJ Financial Services to top their letterhead) This is a scam that is used to steal your identity, and also it gets your bank account information. When you deposit the check, they get your account information, and you not only don't get the $3,800, you get every penny stolen from your account in one fell swoop. I contacted the Local police (who basically didn't care) and the FBI Boston office (who apparently really didn't care either) to advise them of the situation.

Here is the letter (I am typing it verbatim)

Dear (my fiance's name here), April 25, 2008

Claim Number CLSQ/38447

FINAL NOTIFICATION

Congratulations! We are pleased to notify you the release of the Consumers Reward Prize held on February 29, 2008. Your name attached to ticket number 009425836 drew the lucky numbers of 5, 8, 11, 19, 26, and 37 which ultimately WON the lottery in the second catagory. All participants were selected randomly through carious sources & consumers database services, drawn from a pool of 598,000 customers.

We have made many unsuccessful attempts to contact you regarding this winning. You are entitled to the sum of $38,000US dollars. This is from total prize money of $380,000 US dollars that was shared among other declared winners.

You will be using some money on this first check to pay for the applicable TAX on your winning ($38,000) The enclosed check is to be deposited into your bank account and please contact your claim agent to further finalize your claim. We ask that you "keep your claim number confidentially secured" until your claim has been properly processed and funds remitted to you as this is part of our security protocol to avoid any double claims. Please contact your claim agent Ken Fay or Tara Kennedy at 1-905-598-6238 for further clarification and instructions on claiming your winning immediately.

Your claim number is CLSQ/38447 and in accordance with our disbursement policy your prize award money has been forwarded to our clearing/disbursement institution to release your funds to you wither by certified check or money order or wire transfer to your designated local bank account which you will provide. To expedite the processing, enclosed is a check of $3,800 US dollars which has been deducted from your winning.

Hours of Operation

Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm est
Saturday from 10am to 4pm
Sunday Closed

NOTE: All prize monies must be claimed by May 19, 2008

Congratulations,

Sincerely


Waren Peterson
Vice President of Marketing



At first glance, I was a little dumbfounded as to what the hell I was reading. I read the letter over and over, and kept looking at the check (watermarked and 100% perfect printed) to see if it was real or not. My fiance called the number and asked what the deal was. The person (no name given) said it was 100% legit, and all we had to do was deposit the check and the rest would come to our account in 3-5 business days minus taxes.He again claimed it was for being a loyal customer at WalMart.com..... (ok I am guilty and shop there like I shop nowhere else) Our next move was to call the bank on the check. (viva google!!) This is where we were given the disheartening news that it is all a load of crap. They have fielded a bunch of these calls the past few days, and they assure us it is a fake. (report it to your local authoraties)
Sooooo, upon further digging, I uncovered a long standing history for this company of being a phony. They have multiple complaints under multiple pseudonyms all with differant names for contacts and yet the same exact cookie cutter letter.
Now being someone who should know better, I missed a lot of the warning signs of fraud right in the letter itself. There are numerous cases of run-on sentences, incorrect punctuation and the person who signed the letter even misspelled his own damn first name. I am happy to say we didn't get to deposit the check. No harm, no Foul so to speak. (aside the let down we faced when we had become excited about it.)
You may be asking (if your even still reading this) what this has to do with FirefighterNation. Folks, we are all Brothers and Sisters with a love and passion for the job we do. Being a family of vast distances, it is our jobs to be there for one another and to protect our family against harm. Fraud of this caliper doesn't know any geographic boundaries, and it could be tomorrow you get a letter like this sent to you.

Be smart, Be safe, and for heavens sake if it seems to good to be true, IT IS!!!