Congratulations!  You've won $5,000.   All you have to do is deposit this check and wire back $2,000 for expenses.

Minnesota's Attorney General Lori Swanson is alerting consumers to never enter any foreign lottery or sweepstakes asking for money in return for winnings or chances. In Minnesota, federal law currently prohibits the use of mail to sell or buy lottery materials, including tickets, letters or circulars concerning a lottery, chances or shares in a lottery, or payments to purchase such tickets, chances or shares. People have lost thousands of dollars to such unscrupulous prize promoters.

TOP 5 CONSUMER SCAMS 
From the Office of Attorney General Lori Swanson

1. Foreign Lotteries. The Foreign Lottery Scam is initiated by a call, letter, email, or fax claiming that the consumer has won a prize in a foreign lottery or contest. The fraudulent operator typically requests that the victim disclose their banking information for a “deposit” but instead drains the account through unauthorized withdrawals. Oftentimes this scam is combined with the Fake Check Scam. The fraudulent operator may also ask the victim to send money to cover fees for processing, legal operations, foreign customs, taxes, etc. No one has ever received their supposed winnings through this scam, and such scams violate federal law.
2. Advance Fee Fraud. Advance Fee Fraud is a long-running scam whereby an unscrupulous actor convinces a consumer to send payment or an “advance fee” in exchange for a line of credit. Once the perpetrator of the scam receives the fee, however, the credit is not extended, and oftentimes the perpetrator may ask for additional money for “fees” or “processing” charges.
3. Fake Check Scams. Another form of Advance Fee Fraud is known as the Fake Check Scam. The perpetrator of the fraud may pretend to be interested in buying an item over the Internet or renting an apartment. Rather than paying the exact amount of transaction, however, the “buyer” will send a cashier’s check for an amount in excess of the agreed upon value, asking the seller to wire the difference to the “buyer’s” agent (oftentimes located in another state or country). Once the seller has sent the extra money onward, they learn that the check or money order is fraudulent and never hear from the “buyer” or the “agent” again.
4. Foreign Advance Fee Fraud. In this variation of the Advance Fee Fraud, the target of the scam receives a letter, email, or fax from someone claiming to represent a foreign government entity, attorney, or relative of a foreign dignitary requesting “help.” The scam artist requests assistance in transferring millions of dollars into the United States, in exchange for paying the recipient a commission (usually between 25-35 percent of the transferred funds). Through correspondence, the perpetrator of the scam convinces the target to disclose their private bank account information to “deposit” the funds, but instead drains the account. In the latest twist of this scam, the fraudster poses as an American soldier trying to wire money out of Iraq.
5. Phishing. Fraudulent operators may try to “phish” for a consumer’s private banking information in order to make unauthorized withdrawals from the consumer’s account. Phishing begins with a call, letter, email, or fax purporting to come from the victim’s financial institution or another company that the consumer does business with. The correspondence typically requests that the consumer disclose or “verify” their private financial information. Often the correspondence includes an official looking logo, and asks the consumer to contact a “secure” telephone line or Internet site. Typically, the consumer is redirected to a boiler room or fraudulent website, however, where they are convinced to disclose their information for “security” or other reasons. In some cases online, the scam operator may even download spyware onto a victim’s computer with the ability to find the private information of the victim.

The Foreign Lottery Scam is initiated by a call, letter, email, or fax claiming that the consumer has won a prize in a foreign lottery or contest. The fraudulent operator typically requests that the victim disclose their banking information for a “deposit” but instead drains the account through unauthorized withdrawals. Oftentimes this scam is combined with the Fake Check Scam. The fraudulent operator may also ask the victim to send money to cover fees for processing, legal operations, foreign customs, taxes, etc. No one has ever received their supposed winnings through this scam, and such scams violate federal law.

TOP 10 TIPS TO AVOID CONSUMER SCAMS
From the Office of Attorney General Lori Swanson

1. Never disclose your credit card number, check routing information, or other banking information to telemarketers or other solicitors.
2. Do not believe claims that you need to pay in order to “collect your winnings” from a contest or to obtain a line of credit.
3. If you receive correspondence claiming that your financial institution, or account has been jeopardized, do not immediately disclose your account or other information. Contact the company at a telephone number or address that is listed in the telephone book, or that you know to be an accurate contact for the company.
4. Be wary of solicitations asking you to wire money or send payment to a foreign country. It may be difficult for law enforcement officials to pursue lost funds outside of the jurisdiction of the United States.
5. Do not send payment or wire money to a third party in response to a cashier’s check or personal check “overpayment” in connection with your sale of a vehicle, product or service. Remember, just because the bank may make funds from a cashier’s check available quickly does not mean the check is good. Financial institutions can take up to a week or longer to verify that a given cashier’s check or personal check is legitimate.
6. Never respond to correspondence regarding a foreign lottery. These lotteries are illegal!
7. Do not open spam email, or “click” on attachments, images, or links in e-mail messages, instant messages, or pop-up messages.
8. When shopping online, always use a secure website (preferably one that offers encryption) or a well-known payment service. Do not disclose your pin numbers or other sensitive information in connection with a purchase unless you are absolutely positive that you are dealing with a reputable company.
9. Don’t be rushed. People often make poor decisions when they are hurried. Most victims of scams later realize that if they had taken their time and thought it through, they would not have agreed to disclose their information or send money to a given scam operator.
10. If it sounds “too good to be true,” it is.

THE MAGNITUDE OF CONSUMER FRAUD
From the Office of Attorney General Lori Swanson 

• According to the United States Postal Inspection Service, U.S. citizens lose over $120 million per year to the Foreign Lottery Scam.
• The Financial Crimes Unit of the Secret Service receives 100 telephone calls and 300- 500 pieces of correspondence per day from victims and potential victims of the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud.
• According to the FBI, the median dollar loss associated with the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud scheme is over $5,000 per victim.
• According to the United States Postal Service, Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud costs Americans over $100 million per year.
• According to the U.S. Secret Service, telecommunication fraud losses total $1 billion per year.
• According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, Internet fraud reached an all time high in 2006, costing victims $198.4 million.
• According to the FTC, Identity Theft, which may include some forms of phishing, fake check scams, foreign lottery scams, and advance fee fraud, costs America over $50 billion per year. A survey conducted by the Gartner Research Firm in May of 2005 indicated that phishing alone cost Americans $1 billion in the previous year.
• In 2005 Customs and Border Protection agents at JFK airport seized 100,000 pieces of incoming mail suspected of containing foreign lottery solicitations. Upon examination, the mailings contained solicitations to enter the “El Gordo” lottery.