This weekend I received this check in the mail telling me that I had won the Australian lottery. It is for $1950 and they are asking me to call them at a phone # to get more information. I tried calling the number several times and no one picks up or the message says they are not taking any more messages. My question is "What would happen if I deposit the check on my account and wait until it either clear or gets returned? " It might be a fraud check, and I have no intention on using the "$$$" until it gets resolved, but was wondering if the bank would charge me for deposting a fraud check. I won't be using the funds, since they are not really there, but was wondering if I would get penalized.
Thanks.

Did you enter the lottery? If not then how could you win it. C'mon, you must have heard about these scams. Don't even bother trying to deposit it.

I've heard of those scams, but how do they know me? Where do they get their information?

Loads of places. Mostly they grab your e-mail from postings you have made. Or they buy lists or anyone of a number of other ways.

Hello Irhall

Tear the check up!! It is a scam! Stop and ask yourself how could I have won if I did not enter.

As a merchant, our bank charges the company $15 for checks that are no good. I would imagine you would be charged for depositing a bad check as an individual as well.

You can't win something you didn't enter.

I know people who used to work in this field. They send out real checks, from a real account, the check will clear and the money will be put in your account but 3 weeks or a month later it will come back as NSF. Yes you will be charged a bad check fee for this.

They expect you to call and send them back most of this $1950.00 as a tax fee or processing fee to claim the main amount of several million... Of course once you send them the $1950 they stop answering the phone and change phone numbers, and then a month later you get an NSF fee plus your account is at -$1950.00 from the bad check.

Good thing you know it's a scam but avoid the NSF, it might be 15, 25 or more depending on your account, tear up the check and forget about it.

Thanks for the great information. I will tear it up and forget about it!!