A lottery scam is a type of advance-fee fraud which begins with an unexpected email notification, phone call, or mailing (sometimes including a large check) explaining that "You have won!" a large sum of money in a lottery. The recipient of the message — the target of the scam — is usually told to keep the notice secret, "due to a mix-up in some of the names and numbers," and to contact a "claims agent." After contacting the agent, the target of the scam will be asked to pay "processing fees" or "transfer charges" so that the winnings can be distributed, but will never receive any lottery payment.[1] Many email lottery scams use the names of legitimate lottery organizations or other legitimate corporations/companies, but this does not mean the legitimate organizations are in any way involved with the scams.

Received a check in the mail late July 2013. It was written on comstock oil & gas for the amount of $1984.45. A letter accompanied from Gardfield Research. It stated that it was an invitation to work as a "customer Service Evaluator" aka mystery shopper. Instructions for 2 assignments were detailed. I was required to first contact Mark Thomas for authorazation on the check and to receive the assigned receiving agent for a western union money in minutes transfer. Then depoit the check into my personal account, wait a couple days for it to clear, then transfer a portion of it to the receiving agent via western union. I would keep $300 for my services and then go on to assignmnet #2. This included using $100 to shop somewhere. The back of the letter also provided a form to evaluate the clients. I researched Gardfield Research and the company appears not to exist and the address is fake. The check however was written on a good company, but I beleive this to be a HUGE scam!!