This morning as I was feeding my outside brats, my neighbors called to me saying they had something to tell me. They both practically ran up to the fence, all excited and happy. They said they had just won $130,000!
I was all happy for them until they told me the rest of the story. Apparently, they had received a $3000 check and were told they needed to cash it to 'activate their prize claim." The rest of the money is supposed to arrive via UPS within a few days. I asked them where this was coming from and lady answered, "Reader's Digest" while her husband gave a different answer. I asked them if they had actually entered this so called drawing for the prize, and at first they didn't answer me. They just acted confused and looked at each other. I knew right then that the answer was 'no.' But when I asked them a third time if they had entered any contest, they said they had entered online.
After talking with them, I did a search under 'readers digest mail scam' and found several examples of people who had been scammed in this same way - a small check sent to them with instructions to call to activate their check, then to deposit it in their back in order to pay for fees to claim the larger prize. My neighbors said nothing about being asked to pay any fees with the $3000, but when I sent them an email letting them know about the scam, they said the check came from a different place and was issued by a different company than the one in the example I sent them, so they were certain it wasn't a fraud. Despite many other examples from people who received the same check with similar instructions, and whose checks came from different places, they won't listen. But they are so desperate for money, they won't listen. I doubt they have even contacted Reader's Digest to find out for certain if this is legit or a scam.
As a last resort, I just emailed Reader's Digest asking if this was normal policy or if my neighbors have been scammed. I am hoping that I get the answer before my neighbors do something stupid.
