Just as it seems those annoying spam emails from the Crown Prince of Wherever were finally starting to subside, one of the latest attempts to scam you out of your hard-earned money could arrive in the form of an old-fashioned envelope in your regular mail box.

It seems some scammers have been pretending to be Verizon, and sending out fake sweepstakes notifications falsely claiming the recipient has won $750,000. 

Do not respond to any such sweepstakes from someone claiming to be Verizon, as it is a fake!

According to the Verizon news release on the fraudulent sweepstakes:

The letters state that to collect the prize, consumers must first pay a $3,200 "processing fee." Included in each letter is a bogus check for $4,500 to trick consumers into believing that they will be more than reimbursed for the fee.    

The letters state that the check - it misleadingly appears as if it were issued by Verizon - is from the company and that "Verizon Financial" has authorized payment.  However, the bogus checks were not authorized by Verizon and will not be honored by any bank.

Law enforcement has been notified of this scam -- if you get one of these fraudulent mailings, be sure to report it to the United States Postal Inspection Service:

http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx

Posted by Jim 2.0 | tagged: consumer