lotto scam

So yesterday we got a legitimate looking check in the mail for $4800. Since nobody owes us that amount I was immediately suspicious. The attached letter explains that we have won a random lottery. All I have to do is send them $2800 to cover the taxes. and keep the other 2k for myself. Plus I still have $120k coming to me!! So cool!


Of course I know it's a scam. I've even heard of this one before and I'm not about to deposit the check and send them 2800. It's probably too much work, but I would like to track down the person who sent the check and do 2 things.

1. If they are in the US I would deposit the check without spending any of it. When it comes back to my bank I would then sue the guy for a bad check and try to get my 4800 out of him.

2. Explain to him all the wrong things he did in his scam letter.
for example:

The envelope was a dead giveaway. No return address, generic envelope with a poor quality sticker on the front. Legit companies usually care about their image and my 9 year old could have made a better looking envelope. Where's the logo? The color?

The letter was obviously photocopied. It was addressed to Dear Sir/Madam. Oh come on now. Given the abundant availability of word processing programs you can do better than that. It only takes a second to change the greeting and print a new copy for each potential sucker.

A company that appears to be in Canada with a bank that is clearly in the United States. Keep your geography straight.

Grammar is important.

Ok, I might not share those insights with him. It's probably better off if he keeps screwing up while he's trying to scam. The lack of attention to details will get him caught eventually. I'm going to turn my envelope and letter over to the post office person in charge of mail fraud and hope they get one step closer to shutting down this operation.

Still wish I had the opportunity to scam him back though. Oh well, some links that I find interesting.

http://www.fraudaid.com/check_liability.htm

http://www.419eater.com/ the image at the top of the page is from 419eater.com The trophy room cracks me up but most are a bit too offensive to post here.