Hi,
I feel so sorry for those who lost money to these dirt bags. I also received a letter on 9/25/09 stating that I won the $1, 000, 000.00 Giveaway. Like the others who posted comments, my letter was also postmarked from Canada about a joint sweepstakes with Readers Digest and Pepsi Co. I may have subscribed to Readers Digest and occasionally bought Pepsi, but never entered a sweepstake contest. That was my 1st clue it was a scam. Along with the letter was a check for $4, 800.00 drawn on First National Bank in Cloverdale, Indiana. The letter instructed me to contact the representative, Mrs. Olivia Bradshaw at 1-(866) 893-0704, without delay BEFORE depositing the check for further information on my prize. I called several times and left a message, but no one called back. Finally after about the 4th time, (9/29/09) a Mrs. Bradshaw answered the phone. She congratulated me and after confirming my winning Prize Claim Number, she transferred me to Mark Texiera, Exec. Dir. Of Markieting, who gave me instructions. He told me to deposit the check in my bank account and immediately send $2, 800.00 by Western Union to Nancy Blair in Vancouver, Canada. He directed me not to tell anyone at the bank that the check had anything to do with a sweepstake winning, but to just say that it was one of my investment checks. (2nd clue). I also called the bank and they confirmed the account number on the check as being an open account. They didn’t want to know the routing number. However, the routing number only had 6 digits instead of 9 (3rd clue). Did some more research and confirmed my thoughts that this was indeed a scam. I also found out that if you’re a winner, Readers Digest notifies you by registered mail. Since I first spoke to them, I received 3 more follow-up calls from these people asking if I followed thru with their instructions. The last one identified herself as a representative from Pepsi. These people are frauds!

PLEASE…EVERYONE…DON’T FALL FOR THIS! Tell everyone and pass the word around about these cons before they scam other innocent people out of their money. I hope this info prevents someone else from being scammed. I too don’t understand how these people can do this under the name of companies like Readers Digest and Pepsi without getting charged. Too bad the bank, police or other authorities won’t do anything about it.

Trish
Largo, Fl