SCAM ALERT: So I just experienced a consumer phone fraud scam... I was called about 3 hours ago by a rep from the FTC stating that I had a claim of winnings from the American Sweepstakes and promotions in the amount of $550,000 and I would need to call a representative at that company. I gathered all the information and hung up. Now before I go into what next transpired I will give you a little bit about my corporate job experience I recently left this January after 11 years... I worked for LexisNexis Risk Management which is the largest collector of public information and builds solutions that supplies investigative solutions for the financial, law enforcement and government, insurance, collections, mortgage, and up until 2013 background screening industries. I spent 10+ years dealing with the many intricacies of fraud and scams in addition to many other dealings around these industries. I know whats out there on all US citizens and to be honest. You really dont want to know because it is SCARY. I can smell a scam from a mile away and know what information on me is out there and how easily accessible it is. I am protected by numerous layers of protection from LifeLock to manually checking every financial account I have every morning. But there is no way to eliminate the threat of fraud 100% and these pricks just picked the wrong individual to call. So I hang up the phone with the person stating they worked for the FTC (Joey Phillips 202-239-6183) and immediately get a call from a man stating he worked for American Sweepstakes and Promotions (Michael Cohen 702-421-1641) congratulating me that I won $550,000. The urgency was that the time for payout was expiring in 3 days and arrangements would have to made today for delivery of the funds since the prior letters then sent to me were not acknowledged by me. Well the reason they were not was because they were sending these notices to an address that I lived at over 15 years ago in Austin. So during this conversation I proceeded to tell Michael that this was a scam and of my background. So whatever he was going to say to me I would refuse to release information accept an address which is easily found on a Google search and through any of the free public record depositories. He proceeds to continue to congratulate me and assure me that I was in fact a winner of $550,000 . Oh yay me LOL Whatever dude. He then tells me he was going into a meeting to discuss my winnings and delivery of the funds and would call me back in an hour... Well during this time I spend on the phone with Austin PD Fraud dept filing a claim and calling American Sweepstakes and Promotions to verify the winnings (of course no record)... 100% accurate on my assumptions. :) In about an hour I get a phone call back from Michael. He proceeds to tell me that since the deadline has passed and that the insurance policy on the winnings had to be reassured that I would have to, in short, pay the .025% of the winnings to assure that they could be paid... SCAMMMMMMMM LOL I was almost ready to bust out laughing I think at this point on from what I said it finally hit him that I wasnt some idiot... I proceed to tell say, Well Michael that is awesome that I won and I can understand the intricacies of the insurance and laws surrounded around winning such a large amount of money so let me give you the information you need so that the funds can be released. I have already filed a report with the Austin Police Departments fraud division and if you would like to speak with them you can call them at 512-974-5750. CLICK
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 20:51:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015