Managing Money :: Sounds too good to be true? It probably is

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Released: August 10, 2010

Sounds too good to be true? It probably is

Source: David Lazarus, L.A.Times (Free Registration)

Encino resident Beryl Arbit got a nice surprise in the mail the other day: A check for $3,875 as a down payment on $125,000 in international lottery winnings. She examined the check closely, front and back. It was drawn on an account belonging to Eagle Tool & Machine Co. in Springfield, Ohio. But other than that oddity, it sure looked legit.

“I’ve read stories about people being scammed,” Arbit, 60, told me, “but this looked pretty real.”

Her excitement didn’t last long. Googling the lottery company named on an accompanying letter, Goldberg Securities Inc., she quickly saw warnings online that the check was bogus and the purported winnings a scam.

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