New Haven Independent

The “check” was for almost $5,000. The mayor said when he and his wife studied it, “I have to tell ya, it looked a hundred percent genuine to us.”

Suspecting something was amiss, the mayor called Connecticut Attorney General Dick Blumenthal, whose office tracks fraud complaints.

At a City Hall news conference Wednesday afternoon, Blumenthal (pictured on the left, with DeStefano on the right) said there’s been a surge in fraudulent schemes. There were more than 5,000 complaints of fraud statewide last year, and the numbers are rising fast, although he added that the vast majority of those who are defrauded don’t report the crime, mostly out of embarrassment.

The mayor recommended anyone who receives notification in the mail of winning the lottery without playing should call the attorney general’s office. He said there’s a clear set of things to watch out for if you get a “you are a winner! call”: “That the person is really excited, that they demand an immediate response, that they ask for your credit card number or your bank account number, that you have to pay a fee up front or you have to send a payment by wire services.”

Blumenthal advised residents to be wary. “The only way to play the lottery is to buy a ticket or in some way, play the game. Something sent in the mail, without the person playing, is bound to cause heartache and loss. Some of them are aimed at non-English speaking people, and they are especially pernicious, because they exploit the American dream.”