At least one Moore County resident has received a fraudulent check appearing to be prize money in the mail recently according to information received from area law enforcement Wednesday, Jan 27.
The fraudulent checks being mailed to the area appear to be issued by Sun Trust Bank through the Coca Cola Bottling Company. Along with the fraudulent checks, recipients will find a letter Printed on Financial Premium Investment letterhead. The letter will inform the individual they are a winner of money from a sweepstakes put together by the international gaming commission in North America.
Recipients will be instructed to complete several steps in order to receive the prize money.
Recipients are then told that upon completion of these steps and payment of the processing fees, the rest of the prize money totaling $75,200.00 will be sent through FedEx or DHL.
Recipients are then informed all unclaimed prize money will be donated to the United Nations Children’s Fund, and warned not to give out the assigned pin number which appears at the top of the letter.
According to Moore County Attorney Scott Higginbothem, there are three basic things that should raise caution if one should ever receive a check such as this in the mail. “In the first place, it is an unsolicited financial transaction, an individual should always be suspicious of that. The second red flag is that the letter head the letter is written on lists a Canadian address. Anything like this coming from outside of the U.S. should be questioned, and people need to be aware that there is no legal recourse should they actually fall victim to the scam, we have no jurisdiction in Canadian courts. The third thing consumers should do when receiving an item such as this is to call the phone number listed on the letter. When dealing with a fraudulent transaction the phone number will usually ring busy, disconnected or say all circuits are busy.”
Anyone who has questions about the validity of a check or concerns about an item that appears to be fraudulent should call Scott Higginbothem in the Moore County Attorney’s Office, where he will be able to direct them to the proper authorities.

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