[fabsroman]

One of my clients got a letter like that 2 years ago and called me about it. Seems he won a couple million dollars but they needed him to send them a check for the "processing" fee. I asked him if he ever played a lottery that he thought he won, and he said he hadn't been playing. The guy was obssessed with this thing and was going to deposit the check and send in the money. I then asked him how it would make any sense that they are holding a couple million for him and they cannot take the fees out of the winnings. Told him to write them a letter that authorized them to take the fees out of the winnings.

I also told him that when things sound too good to be true, they usually are. The same month, my brother was asking me about an e-mail he received from England about a motorcycle that was being sold for $3,000, which was the current model year and which sold for $12,000 new. All it took was a couple of questions and my brother was convinced it was a scam. Why is the guy trying to sell the bike to somebody in the US, if this is such a great deal in England? Last I checked, it was still legal to own a motorcycle in England. How did he get my brother's e-mail address? Does it sound too good to be true? How much is a flight over to England to look over the motorcycle? That was all it took.

Too many people are so poor that they are just dying to win something. That is why people play the lottery. I know a couple of people that play the lottery all the time and they have lost way more than what they have won, if they won anything. Don't get me wrong, I play the lottery once in a blue moon just for kicks, but it is never more than $20 a year. The lottery is around to make other people rich and to give everybody hope. Kind of like gambling in Vegas for the average Joe, MIT students excluded.