Yesterday a Mysterious Envelope arrived chez Kabong. Said envelope, postmarked Champlain, NY, contained another envelope, addressed from a United Claim Centers in Kirkland, Quebec. Inside was a printed page titled Memorandum of Notification, in which UCC states that “UCC has received documentation concerning your past involvement with sweepstakes/promotion houses” and that “Recipient (is) to be given $8200 cdn” (small print: “Aprox. (sic) Consolidated monetary value”. Apparently, I am “given the opportunity to claim the account(s) mentioned herein”. by signing the form, providing my phone number, and either enclosing 3 bucks for “rush delivery”, or authorizing that I be called collect(!)
On the back is some boilerplate stating that I must be 21 or older, not an employee of UCC, blah blah blah, and this rather odd stipulation:
(Recipient acknowledges that) “he/she is not registered with the F.T.C. National Do Not Call list.”
OK, seems obvious to me that this is some sort of scam, but what is it? Google didn’t seem to turn up anything. Anyone seen this before? Are they really going to this trouble to rip me off for 3 bucks? If I reply, is my phone going to be ringing every five minutes with telemarketers selling time shares? And, er, if I should somehow successfully track 'em down, do they owe me $8200 Canadian simoleons, like they promised?
Just a WAG but maybe they’ll call you collect, at some outrageous per minute cost, using some shady phone service provider that pays them a cut. They may then send you some piece of junk jewelry or coupon book or something that they claim is worth $8200 cdn “Aprox. Consolidated monetary value” (whatever the hell that means).
I’d send them your $3.If it is a scam,at worse you’ve lost $3.If you get nothing,you could then pursuing them through the courts.You have complied with their demands by signing the form,providing your phone number and the $3 and their form states you will be given $8200.The Do Not Call bar is an odd stipulation though…
The $3 is just the thin end of a wedge, intended to build plausibility; “Are they really going to this trouble to rip me off for 3 bucks?” is exactly what the victim is supposed to be thinking at this point.
As an additional resource, the Better Business Bureau is a good place to look regarding something like this. They have no record for United Claim Centers, but I suspect that is because this is just a new name for an existing dishonest company, such as ABS Promotions, aka Cash Installment Services, aka Lone Star Promotions, aka National Winners Group, aka World Wide Award Group, aka…
Somehow I doubt they’ll abide by such an agreement.