Webupon

Sifting through websites such as collegenet, schoolsoup, and fastweb for legitimate college scholarships for my son is a very laborious task.  Since registering on these sites, my son has received two letters in the mail with checks enclosed claiming that he is a winner in some lottery.  The letter states the enclosed check ($3,900.00) is for taxes.  The letter advised him to call a phone number so the check could be activated.  Then he is told to deposit the check into his bank account.  Once this is done, he was told to call back, and he would be advised as to where, and how to pay the taxes.  Once the taxes are paid, a cash prize in the amount of $85,000.00 is supposed to be delivered to him via fedex.  The catch?  The check is deposited.  It appears as if it will clear.  You withdraw the funds from your account.  The scam artists’ place a stop payment on the check.  Then you’re stuck trying to pay the bank back thousands of dollars. 

I did an internet search on one of the companies, but their address and phone number didn’t come up on the white or yellow page directory.  I called my sister because I remember that she had received something similar in the mail a few months ago.  Now, I knew this was too good to be true, but when you’re in need, you want to believe that you’ve won a lump sum of money.  PLEASE BEWARE.  IF you won a lump sum of money, the company or organization wouldn’t be concerned with whether or not you pay the taxes – that would be on you.  Also, a reputable company or organization would not request that you keep your winnings a secret – they would want to use your name and face for promotional purposes. 

I had to post this because it makes me angry when people try to get over on (SCAM) other people.  And I don’t know if these scam artists’ are pulling information from these scholarship search engines, but I just thought it was strange that my son received these letters after we registered on these sites.