Foreign sweepstakes

[DTS]

Client called today, hopeful she will win the Canadian and English sweepstakes (don't we all!). Her question to me was how will the US government be notified, if at all. I don't know the answer to this.

Anyone familiar with this?
Dennis

[Bird Legs]

Foreign Sweepstakes

So your client won a foreign sweepstakes and is going to be rich. Has the client
received the money or does client have to send in some paper work along with
a money order for a $1,000. to process the paper work?
Tell your client to bring you everything s/he has regarding this.
Am afraid your client is about ready to be taken for a big loss.
Had a client that started receiving this. Before his son finally took over his
finances, client had sent over $200,000. overseas.
Shortly after, his wife died. The members of the church that he belonged to
had to take up a collection to pay for her funeral expenses.

[DTS]

Thanks Bird Legs

I will call her tonight and ask her about this then give her your warning. I have heard of these scams a couple years ago, but had forgotten about them.

Thanks for the tip!
Dennis

[DTS]

Bird Legs

I am so glad you answered my post! I immediately got on the phone and called the gal about your post. Sounds to me like this is the beginning of the scam you're talking about.

They have sent her $1,000 so far. She will receive a FedEx package on Saturday with something??? I told her what I could remember about all this. That is that they will send you a $1,000 in hopes, down the road, she will send them $5,000 "just to finalize the paperwork". And so on and so on!!!

Anyway, I told her not to send one more dime into anyone (she's already out $350). Hope she listens!

Thanks, again!
Dennis

[Bird Legs]

Scam-Dennis

sometimes the scammers will send a check for you to deposit in your account.
When you do deposit it, the check will bounce, no good. What happens then is
the bank will hold you responsible for the money. Also the scammers have received
info regarding your bank acct. from which they can steal money.
If I were you, I would have the client bring all paper work that is received through the
mail, to you, so you could go over it.
Please keep us posted on this situation.
The client I was talking about, in previous post, was on the telephone one time, while
I was in his house to pick up some things. He finished, then said to me that that
was the FBI on the phone and that they had found and arrested the scammers and
recovered a lot of my money. The FBI was in the process of sending me a money
order for what they had recovered but first I needed to send them $3,000. to
cover the insurance. That is when I really blew up.
How do you know it was the FBI that called? I asked. Reply was, because they
said it was and gave me a number to call to verify. I then called that number, client
responded, and they answered FBI office.
I gave up, went back to my office and called the local FBI office to let them know
what had transpired.

[BP.]

lottery scam

Last month a neighbor coyly asked me about taxes on lottery winnings. She was bursting to tell me she had won the UK lottery for $90,000! As she told her story, my skeptical reaction concerned her, and even she began to comprehend how ridiculous it all sounded. As Bird stated, she got a check for $3,000 something, deposited it into her bank account, and had to immediately send a money order for $3,000. Unfortunately, this happened a day or two before she talked to me. I broke the news that she should expect the check to bounce within a few days, which it did. And the fact the scammers provided her with a phone # to call them back was part of the proof to her that this was legitimate!

[Chief]

PT Barnum Famous Saying

There's a sucker Born every minute.

These examples are so sad. Who wants something for nothing.

[Unregistered]

If one wins money in the UK National Lottery then it is taxable to a US person. Whether or not the IRS are notified by the Lottery has no bearing on whether or not the income is taxable.

However, the US postal service may regard the transmission as mail fraud, so payments by mail are not permissable. Similarly internet based gambling is imprisonable in the United States (but nowhere else) so playing over the internet would not be possible for a US person living in the US.

[DTS]

Notifying the IRS

Unregistered,

It was not my intention nor my client's intention to find out whether or not she should report any possible winnings from any lottery. She only called wanting to know how much tax would be due, if she would lose her SS, etc., and by what method she would be would be notified in the mail, i.e. 1099 or W-2, or another form I did not know about.

I reread my original post about the IRS being notified about any possible winnings and could see how you might have thought the intention was to NOT report this income. It was not.

I don't think she is going to have to worry about reporting anything, if the previous posts are any indication of what's going on!

Dennis

[Gary]

Just got One

After reading this thread, I received an e-mail saying I one a lottery in Britain.

My gosh. What should I do?????????

Gary

[DTS]

Gary

Delete it quick!!!

Dennis

[jainen]

Don't delete it

Don't delete it. Just scan for viruses. If it is clean, you will be perfectly safe in sending them your money.

[ED SMITH]

Almost all of these scams originate from Nigeria and are written by teenagers who are paid nicely by their criminal bosses. Besides the lottery there are letters offering a percentage of huge sums of money for assisting in freeing up inheritances, overpaid contracts, money deposited by dead parents or a deposed heads of state, etc. These are called 419 letters, referring to that section of the Nigerian criminal fraud code.

Often times the writer purports to be a government official. Many people have been scammed, not only involving money, but some have even lost their life when they went to Nigeria to take part in the scam.

If you run a search of 'Nigeria scam' you will get a lot of interesting stories.

[Unregistered]

I find it impossible to feel sorry for anyone that falls for any of the scams in which assistance is allegedly required to move stolen money out of the country.