So You Got A Letter Saying You Won $50,000. Well, You Didn't. It's A Scam.

Company: Irish Technology Inc.

Contact Name: Celina Reeds, Gladys Jones, John Wells

Address: 150 S. Wacker Dr Chicago, IL 60606
Branch Office: 3434 Des Source Blvd. DDO, BC H9B 2R0

Phone: 403-708-6476

What's Their Scam?

You may have recently received a letter in the mail saying that you have won a "utilities draw", suggesting that names were drawn from a list of individuals who have paid utility bills, and that you have won a large amount of money, commonly around $50,000 and in some cases more.

You probably thought it was legitimate due to the fact that the letter contained a check for $3,000 or $4000, drawn on a nationally known bank. The amount is always less than $5,000, as to not draw any undue attention during processing at the bank. You may have even called the bank and verified that the account did in fact exist and did in fact contain enough money to cover your check.

Let's hope you stopped right there and realized that if something sounds to good to be true it probably is, and threw the letter and the check in the trash. Otherwise, you may have serious trouble at YOUR bank.

The letter the Irish Technology Inc. scammers sent you will instruct you that in order to receive your huge winnings, you must first pay the taxes and transfer fees. This is what the check is for. You will be instructed to deposit the check into your bank account and then you will be required to write one of your own checks for that amount and mail it to a specified address within an extremely short amount of time. The deadline stated in the letter will be less than a week from the time you received it.

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As I said, when you receive the letter you may verify the check with the bank and it will be good. However, by the time you deposit the check into your account and it is processed, the account on which it is drawn will be emptied and closed by the scammers and they will have already cashed YOUR check. By this time, the phone number they gave you will be disconnected.

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In the instance demonstrated above the scammers were using an account with Charter One Bank in Illinois. We have been in contact with the bank and are awaiting confirmation of further information. We'll update on this issue as soon as this information is confirmed.

We are actively tracking these scammers. If you have any information on this company, these people or if you have received one of these letters or even worse, fallen victim to this scam, please E-MAIL US with what ever information you may have.