The National Sweepstakes Association
Complaint 30778 Details

On approximately May 15, 2011 we were contacted by telephone by The National Sweepstakes Association of Seattle, WA telling us we had won 3rd prize in a sweepstakes sponsored by VISA, Master Card and Publishers Clearing House. They had our VISA credit card number. We did not give it to them. They said they had access toVISA records because they were the " administrator" of the sweepstakes. They said we would be receiving deposits via our VISA Card. Subsequently, they deposited $17,000, $18,000, and $20,000 (3 times) to our VISA, Bank of America card. We were then told that these amounts would be used to pay their "Brokers" who would save us paying some of the taxes necessary. They then transferred $17,000 and then $18,000 to our checking account at Chase Bank. When our Chase Bank refused to cash the $18,000 balance transfer, it was returned to VISA for a credit. We then told the Sweepstakes person (Marshall) that we wanted no further deposits of balance transfers done, They quickly made 3 $20,000 deposits to our VISA and transferred $17,500 and $18,800 to our savings account at Citizens Bank to which they had access. These amounts were then wire transferred to a Bank in Barcelona, Spain to a "broker". On July 29 I contacted VISA-Bank of America to get my balance, and found that the first of the $20,000 deposits was returned for NSF. I subsequently tried to contact Marshall, but of course, his phone was disconnected. We immediately contacted Bank of America, and requested a fraud investigation. The Bank of America has refused to consider this a fraud and a scam, and will not investigate for such. We now have a balance of over $62,000 including fees, interest and other charges imposed by Bank of America. We have credit card protection on this account, but they also refuse to consider this identity fraud because they did not have our social security numbers. We did not authorize ANY of the deposits or check transfers made by National Sweepstakes Association, and never received a contact by Bank of America ViSA even though they allowed our account to go much over the $24,700 limit on our card.

We have filed a complaint with the IC3 (internet) and with the Attorney General's Office of the State of Michigan, but have received no assistance to date from either. Our annual income is less than $55,000, and we cannot possible pay the amount we have been charged by Bank of America-VISA unless we file for bankruptcy. Is there anything we can do to retrieve these funds, or locate "The National Sweepstakes Association"to proscecute???