Lottery scam defies sense

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 posted 09:58 AM EDT

COVINA — John McLeod is little wiser after nearly falling for a lottery scam.

"If it sounds too good to be true, man, believe it. It goes back to that old cliche," McLeod said.

The Covina man got a notice in the mail two weeks ago saying he won $165,438 in an international lottery, but first had to pay a clearance fee and taxes of $2,750 as required by federal and international laws.

The fee could be deducted from his winnings, according to the notice from the prize director of Uni Trust Inc. They would send him two checks. McLeod was leery but said he remembered signing up for an international lottery couple of years ago.

"In my greed (I was) thinking I could use $162,000 right now,"

McLeod said, adding he just bought a business in October, Monico's Beauty Salon & Supply in Azusa.

He received a cashier's check for $2,950 from Banner Bank in Washington state on May 10 and was supposed to wire back $2,750 to a Jeri Lindsey via Western Union. He was told Lindsey was the boss of Michael Howard, his contact from the prize department. McLeod would supposedly get the balance of his winnings the following day.

He called the number on the check for Banner Bank and talked to a woman who said she was from customer service.

"What bank has customer service at 7:30 a.m.?" he said.

McLeod deposited the check May 11 at Bank of America and asked the bank to verify if it was good. He was told they couldn't because it wasn't a Bank of America check and it would take up to six days to clear.

He later called information for phone numbers for Banner Bank and reached an employee who told him the lottery was a fraud and that she'd been getting dozens of calls all day, mostly from Kansas City.

"First thing she asked me was if I wired them the money. I said no. She said, 'You're one of the lucky ones." I feel relieved. I couldn't afford a hit like that."

McLeod went to Covina police.

Lt. Pat Buchanan said the scam was perpetrated through the mail, which falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and that McLeod must call that agency.

The number on the "winning notice" sent to McLeod comes back to a cell phone in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. A man who answered the phone on Monday identified himself as Michael Howard and said Uni Trust Inc. isn't in Canada.

When told the check sent to McLeod was bogus and had the same routing number used in several counterfeit cashier's checks, Howard denied the check came from his company.

"If the money is not good it's not from this company," he said. "What do you want me to do? Maybe you got a check from other companies."

The phone number on the fake cashier's check reaches a recorded message telling callers to leave a message and someone from customer service will call them back. No one returned a phone message left Monday.

Ramona Moffat, assistant vice president and fraud investigator for Banner Bank, said this kind of fraud has been going on for years. Banner Bank last year notified the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that counterfeit cashiers checks bearing the bank's name were in circulation and mentioned the routing number used. The FDIC issued an alert.

That routing number appears on the check sent to McLeod.

Thousands of banks have been hit by the widespread scam, Moffat said, and the FDIC has issued similar alerts to many other banks.

Long Beach police say international lottery scams are common, but they have not had reports of this particular scam.

"It comes for awhile and goes away," she said. "Some of the checks are very similar (to Banner Bank's), some very dissimilar." She suggested that people file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

"And use good common sense. No. 1, you don't pay up front for a lottery," Moffat said.

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