I Won! I Won! (Right. And they think I'm an idiot.)

The phone rang and as I reached for it, I noticed that the call was from Kingston, Jamaica.  "Here comes trouble," I thought.

"Meeese Merrylynne?" said the man with a questioning tone.

"Yes, this is Marilyn."

"Meeese Merrylynn, you have won $2.5 million dollars in our lottery and a brand new Mercedes.  How does that make you feel?"

I should have hung up then, but instead I responded, laughing, "That's the funniest thing I've heard in my lifetime."

"Why do you think that's funny?  It's true.  And we have paid for 95% of your income tax due on this winning, so you are only responsible for 5% of the taxes.  Isn't that great?"

At that point, I told the man that I knew it was a scam and that I was going to pass his phone number on to the "authorities".  I hung up, then he had the nerve to call back.  But we didn't answer the phone that time and he didn't leave a message.

I imagine that they will actually hook some people with this scam.  Can you imagine?  If you actually did win $2.5 million, the income tax on that would probably be close to 50%.  You'd owe about $1.25 million in taxes.  This scam says they've paid 95% of those taxes for you and you'll only be responsible for 5% - or $62,500.  And that doesn't include what taxes and fees might be due on a new Mercedes.  But they will probably catch some people on this one.

When did scammers start using the phone instead of emails?  And, doggone it, did you know that our "do not call" lists mean nothing to people from other countries?  This could become the new way to reach people.  Ugh.

I guess Jamaica has joined Nigeria in the scam business.

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P.S.  As our consumer reporter on the local news reminds people all the time, "If you didn't enter, you cannot win a lottery."  Exactly.  And yet they try to catch us on this things.  And I'm sure they do catch some or they wouldn't keep doing the scam.