I received a letter and a check in the mail this week from Reader''s Digest. The letter looked very official and said that I had won the Grand Sweepstakes prize of $150,000.00. At first I really wondered if I HAD won, because a month or so ago, I bought the December issue of the Reader's Digest. I always buy that issue, because I love their Christmas stories. In that issue, was an insert for entering the Reader's Digest contest and it said you could enter online. Since I happened to be sitting on the couch with my laptop, I decided, "Why not?" and entered. Now I never enter contests like that and don't know why I did then, other than just because my laptop was there.
The check that was enclosed, was for around $3500.00 and the letter stated that before you cashed the check, you had to call this number and they would activate the check so you could cash it. The check looked very official and was from a company called, "Texas General Agency, Inc.", that was supposedly located in San Antonio, Texas. It even had a watermark on the back of the check. The thing that first made me suspicious was that the check and the letter had come in a plain envelope - the long kind you would buy at Staples or Office Max. They had typed my address on an address sticker and stuck it on the front. There was no return address. My first thought at seeing the envelope was that it was some kind of advertisement.
I emailed Delirious about it because she is always checking out scams on Snopes. She gave me a couple of web sites to check out. One was a fraud website, and when I went there, they had 4 or 5 entries from people who had gotten the same type letter and check -supposedly from Reader's Digest. That clinched it for me that it was a scam. On that website, one guy had actually called in so they could verify the check. He said that after he did that and cashed the check, then when the check went back to Texas General Agency, Inc., they had his account number and then proceeded to hack into his bank account.
Anyway, everyone beware! If you get a letter from anyone like that in the mail - it's most likely a scam.
Oh, and by the way, just one more reason for me to put on my list to REALLY not enter contests anymore anyway. To me - and I know there are a LOT of you who will disagree with this - entering contests to me is like gambling. Besides, if I won that contest and got a lot of money - then a WHOLE LOT of people really would try to beat down my door and demand to live with me. (See my "I Think I'm Watching Too Much Fox News" blog about my dream. :0) )
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I agree with you about those kind of contests. Something about them just doesn't feel right to me. I know you don't put down money, like in a lottery, but wishing for money I didn't earn feels like it goes against God's plan that requires us to work hard for what we get. (Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return)
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