HKJC Lotteries

I have received a letter from hkjc lotteries stating that I have won 50 grand and they sent me a check with this letter as well that pays fro taxes. I am suppose to deposit this check into my account and go to some international dept and pay the amount of the check given. Is this a scam and if so how can I stop these people ahead of time without doing what i was told to do by them on the phone?

Hi Tanya, yes, it's a fake lottery scam, see this link concerning the same scam:

http://www.lotterypost.com/news/156391

This is the content from that link:

After a Virginia resident reported a check lottery scam he received through the mail, Lt. Troy Steele thought he would give the scam artist a call.

Sitting from his desk at the Culpeper Police Department, in front of this reporter, Steele called Patrick La Pierre from HKJC Lotteries to find out what he would need to do to obtain his winnings of $125,000.

The winnings are supposedly from a Hong Kong Lottery but the person taking all phone calls related to the scam has a Canadian area code.

HKJC Lotteries sends people a check and a letter informing them of the process. The check, which Steele received for $2,940, was for taxes he would have to pay on the winnings.

Steele, using the name of the person who the check was mailed to, had already spoken to La Pierre once before to ask about cashing the check. La Pierre told him to take it to his bank, cash it and then mail a Moneygram to HKJC, which would then send him his money.

The second time Steele called he told La Pierre the money was in hand and he was wondering what he should do next. Keep in mind, Steele never cashed the check.

He was trying to obtain as much information before letting on that he is a police officer.

La Pierre said all agents were busy and asked him to call back in five minutes. When he did, La Pierre transferred him to an agent, Steve Lucas.

"You already made the withdraw?" Lucas asked for the third time.

"Right, that's correct," Steele said.
Lucas then asked for the city and state of where Steele was calling from, which he used to find the closest Moneygram facility.

Lucas told Steele a Moneygram is on Duke Street and gave him a password name to use when filling out the form. He was told to use the name of Steve Streat and send the money to Manitoba.

"Pick up a person-to-person form," Lucas said. "Put in the password and your information. As soon as you are done call back in and we will mail you your check."

Without an actual exchange of money, Steele said there is not much the police department can do in terms of placing any charges. Plus if an individual uses the password, or false name, and files a complaint with police the claim would be invalid since the person's actual name was not used on the Moneygram form.

"It becomes more of a civil matter because it's a promise that's been broken," Steele said.

The community needs to be aware, he said, because HKJC claims the checks they mail are from their financial sponsors.

Some of the checks even contain names of well known banks, such as Bank of America.

If an individual cashes the check at their bank and then mails the money, in five or six days the bank will call them and say the check did not clear because it's no good.

"In the meantime you've cashed it and sent them the money," Steele said.

"You're out the money and yeah you're the victim but the bank will get their money, somebody will have to pay."

Steele plans on calling Lucas back sometime this week and intends to tell him his profession is police work.

He's not exactly sure what Lucas will say or do but Steele has a pretty good idea.

It might sound something like this: Click.

Check Lottery Scam

Culpeper residents are receiving checks for thousands of dollars in the mail with a letter from an international lottery company claiming the resident has won big money.

The company states the resident must cash the check and mail it to them before obtaining the winnings. The check supposedly covers taxes the resident must pay on the winnings.

Once the check is cashed and sent via Moneygram, the company gets their money and the resident is not only out the thousands of dollars but is also not getting any winnings from the false lotto.

If you get any checks or letters with similar information, throw it away or contact police. The Culpeper Police Department can be reached at 727-3430.

Source: Culpeper Star Exponent

Al you need to do now is completely ignore the scammer, do not be tempted to chat with the scammer on the phone or via email, if they have your home phone number, just ignore their calls if you have caller display, and if they email you, simply block their email address.

[edit]

Sorry, I forgot to mention, you will need to hand the check in to your local police station along with the letter you received, don't keep the check at your home, it is a criminal offence under federal law to be in possession of a thins like fake checks.

thank you for your help, it is hard to remember the whole good to be true thing sometimes. However how do we stop these assholes, there definately has to be a way. Should i contact the police about this? its not really fare. I wonder what would happen if I were to tell the scammer that I was not doing anythign until that check has cleared. Or maybe even contact the company who thom the scammer has claimed to be a sponsor. I googled the "sponsors " info and it seemed very legit. Maybe they are being robbed as well?

It is very difficult to stop them scamming people, they use fake names and more often than not, operate out of internet cafes which are thousands of miles away on another continent, although as you will have seen in the news item above, they can be closer to home in places like Canada which is well known as a base where scammers run lottery scams from.

They are pretty much anonymous whilst doing their scams, it's very rare that they get arrested, the main hurdle is that when the victim reports that they have been scammed, the police almost always tell them there is nothing they can do about it, due to my points above about the scammer being so far away and using fake details.

Yes, please give them the letter and the check you received, they might not even be interested in it, but at least it will be out of your hands.

The thing with these scams is that there is almost always a sense of urgency on the scammers part, because they know that the check will eventually be found out to be fake or stolen, so they need their victims to deposit them and send the money as soon as possible before the check is denied as being fraudulent. Of course, there is another problem if they are using stolen checks, because the check will clear, it could be months later when your bank contacts you saying the check you deposited was stolen, and you now have to repay the full amount, face having your account frozen and being arrested for fraud and money laundering.

The companies the scammer is pretending to be from will already be aware of scammers abusing their name, so there is not much point in contacting them, also, you should not have any further correspondence via phone or email with the scammer, it's not a good idea to mess them about by saying you are waiting for the check to clear, they could know people close to your location, they don't like their time and money being wasted by people, so it's best to ignore them completely!

thanks, those are some prety smart points, probably should have thought of them myself . I did contact the police and and officer came to my house and simply acted like it wasn't really a big deal as you stated. He also suggested that I hold onto the check in case there ends up being some sort of federal investigation on these people, this would be helpful. Alright well my excitement for the night came and went, thx for the heads up, that would've really sucked if it went any further!

i was also thinking about reporting this to crime stoppers or something to that effect to help people just like me that this letter has been sent to but maybe are not smart enough to know to research it first.

Tanya - I appreciate your interest in helping others avoid the scam pitfall. The truth is that there are already massive amounts of resources available out there to help people learn about fake lottery scams and other types of internet fraud. To see what I mean, just go to www.google.com and search on the words "fake lottery scam". You will find literally hundreds of websites that provide reams of info about these scams and how they work. There are literally millions of fake lotto emails being sent out to inboxes every day.

The fact is, the best way you can help others avoid being scammed is by spreading the word. Everyone has to hear of it for the first time somehow - better to hear about it from a friend or relative warning them, rather than a scammer trying to steal their money!

As SP points out above, it's almost impossible to ever do anything directly to the scammers themselves...one reason being that nobody can prove who they are! All you have is anonymous email addresses and no real identity, so what can be done?

The only way this type of crime is ever going to stop is when people stop falling for it and sending them money. When there's no money it, they won't do it. So be sure to share your story! You never know who you might just save from losing their life savings.