My wife fell prey to one of these scams last year. She received a letter in Oct 06 claiming she was a winner of a promotional program and that she needed to pay the taxes on the money to receive the money. The letter head was "LottoChannel Forum". Attached to the letter was a check from Sun Trust Bank in the amount of $3874. The check appeared legitimate to her (although it simply stated “Official Check†at the top, “LCF†on the purchaser line, and nothing on the memo line; is this something that should have raised a red flag for the teller??)
The letter gave her instructions not to attempt to negotiate the check until she called a “client care manager†for further instructions. She was directed to deposit the check in her bank and send a moneygram for the amount of the check. This transaction occurred on 13 Nov 06. In early December, when the money did not come back as promised she went to her credit union and was sent to talk to the credit unions security officer at which time she was advised that she was probably scammed and that if they (the credit union) had not heard anything from SunTrust they (SunTrust) had probably eaten the loss.
Today, 1 March 07 she was notified by her credit union that the check bounced and her account was frozen until she repays the bank. We don’t think that the credit necessarily did its due diligence in a timely manner during the transaction which resulted in successful scam. Our problem is we don’t know what rules the credit union or Sun Trust were supposed to follow, procedures for check identification, time frames etc.
The scammers won this one and now the bank seems to be punishing the victim. Right now it seems the next battle is with the credit union. What are our options? Do we need to get an attorney? Where can we go to find out the prudent measures the banks should have taken to prevent this?
I knew it was bogus as soon as I saw the letter but unfortunately I never saw the letter until it was too late...she thought it would be a nice surprise for the christmas holiday.
It sure was.........and now Santa is at the door again... 