Gary Young said he should have known better, but the promise of thousands of dollars clouded his judgment a bit.
Now, the North Sewickley Township man is out more than $3,500, the victim of the latest scam to target the region.
In a letter dated Dec. 15, from the purported Transmerica POS Prize Pool Lottery, Young was told that he had until Dec. 30 to claim a $50,000 prize. To claim the prize, he had to take a Transmerica check, worth $3,950, and cash it, so that he could wire money to the lottery in Halifax, Canada.
Young said he took the check to a local bank, which he would not identify, and it eventually declared it a valid check, and deposited the money into Young's bank account. Just before the New Year, Young sent $3,650, at a cost of $184, through Western Union to Halifax.
Within a few days, while awaiting the "lottery proceeds" he would never receive, Young said he was in an area grocery store, and when he tried to pay for the items using his debit card, realized he was facing a financial disaster.
His bank, Young said, learned the check was fake, so to get its money back, dipped into Young's account, and virtually wiped him out.
A chagrined Young came forward to Beaver County detectives, not only to see if they could help him recover his money, but also to warn others that you can't get something for nothing.
"You just get greed in your eyes," Young, 52, said last week. "I could see sending my son to college. I could see lots of things."
Young, according to U.S. Postal Inspector Andre Richards, is not alone in his problem.
Mr Young would have been better off playing Unlucky for Life, IF it had a cash option. Stupid lottery games make people go "off the board".
It's just amazing to repeatedly read these stories of gullible people. I just don't understand how people can be so foolish as to fall for this stuff.
The guy gets no pity from me.
It's just amazing to repeatedly read these stories of gullible people. I just don't understand how people can be so foolish as to fall for this stuff.
The guy gets no pity from me.
I keep posting these stories, hoping that the gullible people out there will see them.
You can't imagine how many e-mails I get from people who receive some stupid scam letter in the mail, and they're writing to me to claim the prize. DUH!
i get one of those in my email about one a week.its says its from overseas and i never played it.i just delate it always.
It's just amazing to repeatedly read these stories of gullible people. I just don't understand how people can be so foolish as to fall for this stuff.
The guy gets no pity from me.
I keep posting these stories, hoping that the gullible people out there will see them.
You can't imagine how many e-mails I get from people who receive some stupid scam letter in the mail, and they're writing to me to claim the prize. DUH!
Todd,
I think it's one of the best ways to get the word out - continually posting these types of stories.
Maybe someone will google lottery/scam/pay-to-win, or something like that and the postings will come up and save them the embarrassment and the cash.
We have to have hope....
DD
There is a difference between stupid and ignorance. Stupid means you know better, but do it anyways. Ignorance means you just didn't know. With either, I hope the person learns.
When I first signed on to eBay, I got a letter that said that someone was getting into my account. So I used the link and it asked me to sign in. I did. It asked me for the information I put in orginally, like my name and password and so on. Then it asked for my credit card that I used. I typed it in. The nexted thing they asked was for the security code on the back. THAT is what stopped me. I NEVER give that out. I know I didn't do it before, yet they asked me "again". I was so embarrased! I fell for it! Lucky for me I didn't hit enter with the credit card number yet...so I reported it. I changed passwords and everything.
The point is, if you are "new" to something, or hear often what happens to stupid people, you THINK you're prepared. Then ignorance rears it's ugly head and hits you right in the jaw. I always heard of people getting scamed with eBay. So when I saw the email I instantly thought someone was screwing with me....I didn't think the email itself was the scam!
I personally would never think I won something I didn't play. Lottery is easier because you know you have to PAY to win. If you didn't pay then you couldn't have possibly won! Maybe this guy signed on to a lot of drawings online and didn't remember if this is the won he signed up for or not. Maybe he thought since it cleared the bank, he's good to go. (the red flag should have been when he spent his OWN money to send it back)
Either way, I'm sorry this happened to him. I hope others learn from it.
If it's too good to be true, it is.
No one is going to win a lottery or a sweepstakes they didn't enter.
It's amazing how often people are taken advantage of by these fraudulent companies. Whitmansm2 is right, everyone has fallen for a scam at some point in their lives. We should consider ourselves lucky that we have enough lottery know-how to sense a scam from the get-go. It is our resonsibility to report fraudulent emails and letters to prevent someone being taken advantage of in this way.
Greedy or not, no one deserves to be robbed.
It's just amazing to repeatedly read these stories of gullible people. I just don't understand how people can be so foolish as to fall for this stuff.
The guy gets no pity from me.
I keep posting these stories, hoping that the gullible people out there will see them.
You can't imagine how many e-mails I get from people who receive some stupid scam letter in the mail, and they're writing to me to claim the prize. DUH!
I would have thought the members here would be on the higher end of the intellect curve! If an LP member falls for a lotto scam, they better keep their mouth shut and hope no one finds out. I've seen dozens of articles on LP, and so has every one else - except the filter obssessed. They should be smarter.
Gary Young said he should have known better, but the promise of thousands of dollars clouded his judgment a bit.
Buy 'em books, buy 'em books and they continue to chew on the covers!
I am sorry to say that I fell for a trick also.My notification , came in the mail. they sent me a cashiers check for $3800.00,
to be placed in my bank. The Bank of course sent the check back.Left me $398.00 in the rear.
Me with cancer I thought I had something too pay all bills and my son"s student loans off.
The name of the so called company is ----Money Camp International Lotto Servicesand the person I had to contact was
Tim Horton .-----Phone # is 1 905 598 1796.
Thank you For your comment? KJ at jones4364@bellsouth.net
I am sorry to say that I fell for a trick also.My notification , came in the mail. they sent me a cashiers check for $3800.00, to be placed in my bank. The Bank of course sent the check back.Left me $398.00 in the rear. Me with cancer I thought I had something too pay all bills and my son"s student loans off. The name of the so called company is ----Money Camp International Lotto Servicesand the person I had to contact was Tim Horton .-----Phone # is 1 905 598 1796. Thank you For your comment? KJ at jones4364@bellsouth.net
when in doubt check FraudWatch International