American Sweepstakes
Complaint 6202 Details

On July 19th I was contacted by a man claiming to be Agent David Robbins from the FTC. He told me that I had won $450,000 and that I needed to send an insurance payment of $2000 before the check could be delivered to me. I was told to pay it by Western Union to Valeria Sans-Isaza. I did. Then on July 20th I was contacted by a Arthur Watts and told that the check was insured thru his company Loyld's of London Insurance but that I now had to pay a registration fee to the IRS of $4000 for the check to be able to leave customs at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. I paid the the $4000 to a bonded trustee named Ceasar Rosales-Mejias but was sent back to MoneyGram because Mr. Robbins had given me the wrong last name. It was changed to Ceasar Rosales Aguilar. On July 21st when the check for $450,000 was supposed to leave Customs, Mr. Watts called me back and told me that I now had to pay a Luxury Tax of $27,000 to the IRS before it could be released. I told him that was not going to happen and he told me that the IRS said I had assetts I could liquidate to cover this tax. He said he would call back in 30 minutes and instead I received a call from a Mr. Craig Patterson from American Sweepstakes telling me that the check could no longer be held at the airport and I either needed to pay the taxes or he was ordering it sent back. He asked why I hadn't paid them and I told him that I didn't even know about the taxes until that afternoon. He said that was unacceptable and that his company did not need any bad publicity and he would call me right back. He never did. Instead a Ms. Linda Fischer from Customs called and verified the check was in customs and would be released as soon as the taxes were paid. I then called Arthur Watts and asked him why the 2 people sent to pick up my check weren't calling me. Thier names were George Armstrong and Amy Reynolds. They never called at any point. I was angry and frustrated at this point and asked for a refund of all the money I had paid Arthur Watts and he said it would take time about 2-3 weeks and he would call me back with the needed information. Of course, he never did. I reported all of this to the real Federal trade Commission, the FBI and the IRS. They still have the same numbers and names and are still answering there phones but as soon as they hear it is me they hang up or play like they don't know what I'm talking about. Thier numbers are as follows:
Arthur Watts- Loyld's of London(Personal Info Removed)
Agent David Robbins-FTC-(Personal Info Removed)
Craig Patterson-American Sweepstakes-(Personal Info Removed)
Hopefully this information will help stop it from happening to anyone else.