What is national store promo number T46273601

12/31/2008, 11pm:

I got a letter in the mail saying I am a winner of "National Store Promo number : T467239-01, concluded September 10, 2008, drew the lucky winning #:1294048."

I don't know for sure what National store promo is. There is a number listed on the letter that is apparently the Client Manager. his name was listed as "Michael Daddy @ 1-905-783-0520." It is a Niagara Peninsula number in Ontario, Canada. I called this guy. He says the promo is a type of drawing where you are entered when you make large purchases at a national store, such as wal-mart, home depot, lowe's, etc.

Of course I have made many purchases any many of those stores throughout the year, like most Americans. So it seemed plausible. However, if it sounds to good to be true, be VERY skeptical.

I also "activated" the check, which I now wish I had not done. The "activation" was just telling him the check number and who I was. I did not give any of my account information or such. However, now they may try to bait and catch me some more since they know I am a living person.

From the letter, "All participants were selected randomly from a pool of 113,706,009 names from seventy one participating departmental retail stores. This winning occurred during the use of you bank debit, charge or credit card as form of payment at point of sale at a checkout counter, or a supplementary balloting."

My letter came with a title "Batch Winners Number: 6619N-011" Then includes my name and a Congratulations type message.

The letter states "you must call to active your partial enclosed check of $XXXX.XX. Your balance winner's funds of $XXXX.XX US will be paid out to you in full at an "MoneyGram International" facility located at Wal-Mart stores upon the presentation of a avalid photo Identification. "

This part seems kind of like those Nigerian loan scams that you get e-mails about.

Later it gets worse sounding and has the following information in the letter, "To ensure that we are paying to the actual winner, you will be required to go into any MoneyGram International facility to perform a verification transaction to any person of your choice; family members or personal friends. We will ask you to cancel and get a refund after our confirmation. The enclosed partial check will assit you to carry out the verification transaction." Not sure what this means. Seems like it means they will cancel the transaction and not give you the money.

However, if they do this I'm not sure what the reason can be. Since the company/scammers already have your address and name, they do not seem to be getting any account information out of you. Nowhere in the letter do they ask you for your account information.

The scariest part of the letter is the fact that you have to deposity the check they sent you into one of your checking accounts. I am going to try to deposit the check AFTER confirming with a local "Comerica Bank" which is listed on the mailed check as the origination bank.

I'll write back/answer this post after finding out if the check works/is valid.

12/31/2008, 3pm:

More info on this issue:

The check that came in the mail with the letter was listed as a "Comerica Bank" check with address of 101 N. Main St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

On the top left of the check there was listed an address of "DATA2LOGISTICS 4310 Metro Parkway Ft. Myers, FL 33916" The check looks TOTALLY real to me. My coworkers also thought the check looked totally authentic. There were good looking water marks and microprint. The foil sticker/emblem looks/is real too. DO NOT BE FOOLED!

This gives the check some type of "authentic" look-and-feel. On the top right of the check was a 5 digit check number. The PAY TO THE ORDER OF section has my name listed and the amount of money is written out just like any other check. In this case the check was for 1,995.XX dollars. There was a gold foil emblem to the left of the signature and above the account number. The routing number was 072404786 with a account number of 2176997290. This check, according to my local Comerica Bank, was a fraud check. The account number is apparently REAL, and according to Comerica bank is an OPEN account, but the check is fake.

What this means to me is that the account holders(SCAM-ARTISTS) wanted me to try to deposit the check into my account so they could get a copy of my information, my account number and routing numbers from MY bank when they attempted to cash the check and it is rejected. DO NOT TRY TO CASH THESE CHECKS!!!! THEY ARE FAKE! Luckily, I caught the fraud BEFORE trying to cash it, but I'm sure many people have been caught by this web.

I am now signing up with some identity protection company to keep myself safe since I now feel exposed to these evil fraudsters.

Again, the checks are FAKE. DO NOT TRY TO DEPOSIT THEM INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS OR YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO FRAUD AND THEFT.