FWIW: There is a relatively new scam on the 'net. Originator is FSC (First Security Corp) announcing that you have won a lottery (nothing new so far). BUT: They include a check for you with the notice.
My check was for $4890. This is (supposedly) for me to pay the taxes on my winnings, and was run from Canada. Taxes due: $4,400.
The killer is that you must pay the taxes to your "Tax Agent" by Western Union or Moneygram, and that pretty fast.
Bank routing codes on the check are legit. BUT: Not for the bank shown (Cigna/Bank of Conneticut (sic), for St Looks (sic) hospital. (not St. Luke's).
Checks are on a legitimate bank, but there's no account there. The idea is you will send a moneygram out of your own account while waiting for the bogus check to clear. Gotcha!
The beauty of the scam is that the checks are written on security paper, with surface security watermarks. A fault is that the check says there is security microprinting in the borders, but there is no such microprinting there.
Turned it over to my financial inst. and they verified the routing codes, and also that the designated account did not exist. They appreciated my givig them a heads up on this, as they had not seen it before in this particular flavor. The giveaway was the misspelling of the word "Connecticut".
If you have received this in the mails, well, you've been warned.
Alex