In one of them, the victim receives a letter in the mail stating he or she has won unclaimed prize money, and the victim’s name was randomly selected through a computerized ballot system. The letter references several nationally known sweepstakes and includes a check.

A Rehoboth Beach woman received a check written on the account of ESG Financial Groups and Consultants for $2,980.50. The check appears legitimate, including bank notations on the back of it. The letter stated the victim was to deposit the check, but she was to contact Richard Young to have the funds authorized for release. Although ESG is listed with a Minneapolis, Minn. address, the postmark on the envelope was from Canada.

What happens in this type of scam, said Det. Scott Gray of the Financial Crimes Unit at Troop 4, is a victim is told to send a portion of the funds to some remote location to pay for taxes on the winnings. If the scam works, the victim sends money away only to learn later the deposited check bounced.

“You’re not going to get something for nothing,” said Gray, “and if you haven’t played anything, you haven’t won anything. Names are just pulled from a database.” Gray said if people have some reason to believe such winnings are legitimate, they should research the company sending the check, and not just on the internet. It is simple and very inexpensive to set up false websites. Instead, he said, people should call the Better Business Bureau.

“If there’s a question in your mind that something’s not right, you have to do something to find out about it,” said Gray.

State police can seldom help victims who fall for these scams, since the vast majority of them originate outside the United States. “It’s also illegal to play a lottery in another country anyway,” said Gray. The Rehoboth woman knew immediately the letter and check were part of a scam and did not try to deposit or cash the check.

Another similar scam was detected upstate, but it was orchestrated to evolve over several months. Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh, state police spokesman, said an 84-year-old woman filled out a postcard to be enrolled in sweepstakes.

Months passed, and she received a call notifying her she had won $2.4 million. At first she thought it was not true and hung up on the caller, but the scammers started making regular calls to her, and she finally believed they were telling her the truth.

“In order to speed up the winnings the victim was advised that she would be sent several checks in the mail,” stated Whitmarsh in a press release. “She was then advised to deposit the money in her bank account and in turn wire a portion of the funds to a bank account in Jamaica for tax purposes. Within several days, the victim received three checks totaling $10,500. She did as she was told and ultimately wired over $1,000 to the Jamaica account. An alert WSFS bank employee smelled crime afoot and worked to freeze the funds and contacted the police. The checks were also proven to be fraudulent.”