WTF???

New scam traced back to same as above. This one for 450,000 cheque sent on M&T Bank Altoona  Pa. Give all your paper work to your State Atorneys Office.This will help them a lot.They can work with other countries to stop these scams. GOOD LUCK   Sorry I forgot the new number 1778-895-3422 Oscar Willis

New scam traced back to same as above. This one for 450,000 cheque sent on M&T Bank Altoona  Pa. Give all your paper work to your State Atorneys Office.This will help them a lot.They can work with other countries to stop these scams. GOOD LUCK!

Forgot to mention, if you do a 411.com search of 1-778-862-3199 you can see it is a "Fido Solutions" [cell] phone out of New Westminster, B.C. Likely a "pay as you go" cell phone purchased with no or fraudulent ID. The persons using this phone will use it to collect the money wire transfer numbers of persons stupid enought to cash their worthless cheque and wire money. The money can be picked up anywhere in the world that the wire service has an office. [Moneygram = > 150,000 locations world wide]. All the turd scammer needs is the wire transfer number the sender provides him/her via phone. Don't call them.

This is 100% scam. There is no such address as "56 Imperical Street, Victoria, B.C.". Best thing to do is burn the cheque & letter with no reply to the 1-778 number. These people keep going because dummys keep cashing their worthless cheques and sending money via anonymous money wire transfers like Western Union or Moneygram thinking they will be sent a certified cheque with their lottery winnings. There is no $250,000 prize. Get it?????

So I am wondering if there is any way to scam the scamers? I got the same letter and check in the mail today. I am curious though if there is a way to cash the check at a check cashing place and wait until it clears before spending any of the money? There has to be a way to outwit the scam artists behind this.

Did you ever deposit the check?  I received the same letter today, did a little internet search on the Ensign United States Drilling Inc and it appears to be a valid corporation.  Have you checked your phone bill to see what you were charged to make the phone call?

I received the same information in a letter today.  The letter is supposedly from a \G&F  Financial Group in Victoria, BC (not a typo - the slash looks to be part of the name on the letter). The postal code is V3L Y4Z, which is not a Victoria postal code.  The Amanda Elvis tax Collector has an incomplete address of St. John NB, which is on the opposite side of Canada.  I initially checked out all of the letter's info because I heard about a similar scam where someone tries to get you to call an out of the country phone number and charges a rediculous amount of money per minute for the call.  At work, I talk to people all over the US and Canada on a daily basis so I knew the addresses looked a little hinky.  I wonder how many people get taken in by this stuff.

So I take it this was some sort of scam.  We did receive a call and then received this letter you described.  What was the outcome of your experience?

Didn't receive a call. We received a letter from G&F Financial Group that we had won $250,000. The letter came with a very real looking check with Ensign United States Drilling, Inc as the name on the Well's Fargo Account for $4,998.00. We called the phone number above and a man with a very thick accent answered the phone. The letter said to ask for Nancy Dickons or Steve Brown. He said we were to call him after we deposited the check. Then next week we would receive a certified check for $250,000 by Federal Express. The check enclosed is supposed to be for a Government Service Tax for non Canadian Residents payable to Amanda Elvis (Tax Agent) for $3.990.00.