Reply #1: check this out, i thought it was really sad. this was in my local paper this morning.

[AlCzervik]

i do feel bad for this guy, he should have known better but i do have sympathy for him.


Sweepstakes scam fleeces Florin-area man

The 74-year-old paid about $125,000 and took out a home loan.

By Hudson Sangree - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, September 5, 2007

James Williams got the first letter in February. It said he had won $450,000 in a sweepstakes and was required to purchase an insurance policy against identity theft before the money could be sent.

The letterhead read "American Federal Direct Consumer Protection Agency" and bore an official-looking seal. In April another letter came that said he had won $4.5 million and again instructed him to buy an insurance policy.

Over the months, Williams received dozens more faxed letters, some that purported to be from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, the Sacramento County grand jury and Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo.

The faxes had letterheads that appeared to be copied from government Web sites. They instructed Williams to pay various fees and taxes, generally in amounts of $2,000 or $3,000, before he could receive his lottery winnings.

"The homeland security must charge $2,700.00 in order to be able to approve all clearences (sic)," said one letter signed "Richard L. Skinner," the agency's inspector general.

By the time Williams realized last week that it was all a scam, the 74-year-old great-grandfather said he had sent about 40 wire transfers totaling $125,000 to Costa Rica and other locations.

He borrowed the money using his Florin-area home as collateral and took cash advances on his credit cards.

Williams worked as a clerk for nearly 50 years for the Air Force and then as a civilian at McClellan Air Force Base.

He said he was taken in by the official-looking letters, even though they were often poorly written and misspelled.

Sending the money to Costa Rica made him suspicious, he said. And his friends, daughter, ex-wife and even Western Union warned him he was caught up in a sweepstakes scam.

"I didn't want to believe it," Williams said Tuesday. "I thought I had the money coming back, like an investment."

"I look in the mirror now and think, 'Stupid fool,' " he said.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/360968.html