Recently Jode Ventura of New Bedford, Massachusetts was lucky enought ot win $150,000 in a lottery conducted by Home Depot, a store where she frequently shopped.  The contest was from their British office and said, “We are pleased to inform you that you are one of the declared winners of a mega lottery conducted in UK.”  Inside the letter was the first payment of her winning, a bank check for $3,980.  The letter also required Ventura to send back  a check for  for $1,995.  Fortunately, for Jode Ventura, she went to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office where to Jode’s surprise, she was told that it was a scam and did not fall for it.  Others have not been so lucky.

TIPS

As I have warned you many times.  It is hard enough to win a lottery you have entered.  It is impossible to win one that you have not entered.  Foreign lottery scams are one of the most common scams today and they all share one thing in common that should be a tip off to you if you receive a notice that you have won a foreign lottery – playing foreign lotteries are illegal under Title 17, Part I, Chapter 95 , Section 1953 of the Federal Law.   Many people who receive these checks think they are being smart by waiting for the check to clear before sending back any money.  Unfortunately, they do not understand the rules of provisional credit under which, their account will be given temporary credit for the check after a few days while it goes through the more lengthy clearing process.  It will appear that it has cleared, but it has not and this will come back to haunt the victim when the check ultimately bounces after a few weeks, but the check that the victim has sent does not bounce.  Finally, taxes are never collected by the operators of legitimate lotteries.  They either deduct the income taxes from your winnings, or more often they leave it to you to pay the income taxes.