Victim of Lottery Fraud Speaks Out

We received a detailed story from a victim of lottery fraud by email yesterday. Lottery fraud was named as the #1 scam of 2006 by ConsumerAffairs.com and was profiled on CreditBloggers.com earlier this week. The following is a true story from one victim. His case involves both basic lottery fraud and check cashing scams:

Around March of last year, I received a check in the mail for $4,950 along with a letter saying I won the lottery and should contact a person by phone. I was so excited because I had played out of state lotteries int he past. I called the number and spoke to someone who informed me that I had won $150,000.

However, I had to deposit the check that I received in order to receive the remaining balance. And there was a a fee of $2,500 that had to be sent via Money Gram instead of Western Union. I went to the bank that I had been with for over 15 years and deposited the check and withdrew the funds. Once I got back home, the guy called and said that there was another fee I had to pay before I would receive another check for $18,000.  I went to Money Gram and sent another $2,500.

The next day, I received a check via UPS. He called and said that there was one more final fee and I needed to mail it right away. I started questioning all the fees at this time. Meanwhile, my bank called me and informed me that the check I deposited was good but that the money did not belong to me. Prior to obtaining this information from the bank, I gave some of the money I thought I "won" to family members. The bank went into my savings and took back most of money, leaving my savings in the red. I contacted the FBI and filed a complaint but haven't hear anything.

To make a long story short, this was a scam! I still owe my bank approximately $10,000.

What a terrible situation. I wonder how many of these fraud incidents could be prevented if money wiring services took the time to warn their customers about scams. Recently Western Union  took the good step of adding a brief fraud alert on their website.

Do you have a fraud story to share or a question to ask for National Consumer Protection Week? Send us an email at tidbits@credit.com.