Contest "win" a scam
Published in the Asbury Park Press 06/9/05

Q: I received this notice in the mail that says I won $3.341 million in a sweepstakes. How legal is this?

R.J., Brick

A: You probably wouldn't be asking if you remembered entering the Las Vegas Nevada Actionable Awards Program sweepstakes, so it seems safe to say you already know it's a scam.

There's nothing to take legal action on unless you sent the $20 "report-release fee" the letter says is required for you to get the money.

If this LVNAAP really held $3 million of real money for you, why wouldn't it just take any legally applicable fees from that and send you the rest? What new multimillionaire would stiff poor little LVNAAP out of its $20 due, and maybe even give a nice tip, right?

A company managing that kind of cash surely could spring for better than a form letter that automatically fills your name into underlined blank spaces. Its machine even missed one of those blanks on your letter.

Administrators of real multimillion-dollar sweepstakes, which are few and far between, don't tell the new millionaires they must "Tell nobody!" either.

If the company conned you out of $20, you should report it to your U.S. postal inspector in Newark, (973) 693-5400, and to the Federal Trade Commission, (877) 382-4357.

If not, just chuck the letter.

You can go online to chat about it with lots of fellow "winners," too. If you had taken the bait, as others did, you would have been instructed to send another $20 for the agents' fee next time, then another for something else, until you figured out you'd been had.

The Better Business Bureau, of course, deems LVNAAP to be an unsatisfactory business. It says the unlicensed company is operated by Lapham, Vargas & Cornell, P.O. Box 98855, Las Vegas, NV 89193.

Trouble Shooter cannot accept telephone queries. Send letters to Trouble Shooter, Asbury Park Press, 3601 Route 66, Box 1550, Neptune, NJ 07754-1551, fax (732) 643-4014 or trouble@app.com.

Readers must include their own names and addresses and should authorize agencies to disclose relevant information to this column. Letters may be edited for publication. Submit copies of photographs and documents; originals may not be returned.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...506090478/1067

Attached Images

	Page1-front.jpg (141.0 KB, 477 views)
	Page1-front2.jpg (141.0 KB, 309 views)
	LVAAP-envelops_front.png (935.2 KB, 227 views)

WARNING The Better Business Bureau warns that residents in this area are receiving notice they won "more than $3 million!" in a sweepstakes. The hitch? You have to pay $20 in processing fees to receive the money. Of course, the money never comes. The certificates are being mailed by Lapham, Vargas & Cornell, a Las Vegas-based company that does business under a number of names, including Las Vegas Nevada Actionable Award Program and Selective Award Citation Organization/ America. The company has an unsatisfactory rating from the Better Business Bureau because of one or more unanswered complaints. Don't fall for this scam.

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2...48/0/FRONTPAGE

Who Are Lapham, Vargas & Cornell? See Search Result:

After reviewing one of these letters sent to a good friend of mine, I decided to search for them through both the BBB and more popular search engines to find absolutely nothing but this very informative site and a few interesting facts about the "company" that should be brought before a federal court and held accountable for their fraudulent claims.

The letter placed my friend's name at the top of a list of four winners. Said friend was the only one who had not claimed the prize - of $3,341,006.00 - of the four (whose prize winnings varied). The names of those other "winners"?

NAME NO.2 Gloria Pantalone, VA
NAME NO.3 Ken Lloyd, OR
NAME NO.4 John Lindsley, TX

Names look familiar? A quick search will show that almost all of these letters (if not all of them) show these three names as the recipients who have received their prize money.

The BBB gives a phone number for a company called Lapham, Vargas & Cornell. The number is (702) 000-0312. I personally have not attempted to contact this company due to long distance charges which will occur from doing so, and I intend to spend no money on these con-artists; also it doesn't look like a legitimate phone number to me.

Other names for the "company" include:
Bureau of Public Relations
L V A A P
Las Vegas Actionable Award Program
Las Vegas Nevada Actionable Award Program
LVAAP
Selective Award Citation Organization/America

The Greely Tribune had this to say about it:

"WARNING -- The Better Business Bureau warns that residents in this area are receiving notice they won "more than $3 million!" in a sweepstakes. The hitch? You have to pay $20 in processing fees to receive the money. Of course, the money never comes. The certificates are being mailed by Lapham, Vargas & Cornell, a Las Vegas-based company that does business under a number of names, including Las Vegas Nevada Actionable Award Program and Selective Award Citation Organization/ America. The company has an unsatisfactory rating from the Better Business Bureau because of one or more unanswered complaints. Don't fall for this scam."

I would like to bring attention to a wonderful little clause written on the letter.

The literature states, "LVAAP is a service offered to our customers that provides information on available sweepstakes that are open to the public for entry. Subscribers are solely responsible for investigating, viewing and complying with any and all rules, restrictions, requirements, or provisions set forth in all sweepstakes. The contents of our newsletters are accurate to the best of our knowledge, and LVAAP shall not be liable for errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. Liability for any mistake or typographical error is limited to a full refund of the purchase price of the publication. LVAAP has no affiliation with any particular sponsor of any sweepstakes or contest. No such association or affiliation should be inferred or implied."

If and when a class-action lawsuit is filed I would be delighted to help in any way that I can.

Nic
Richardson, Texas
U.S.A.

http://w3.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff148933.htm

North Carolina Better Business
Consumer Alerts
July 2005

Lapham, Vargas & Cornell, a Las Vegas based company, is sending out credible-looking certificates stating, "You are Definitely Sworn to Secrecy," followed by "Absolutely Confidential." There are warnings of "Tell Nobody" throughout the document. In fact, thousands of people are being sent the same information. All they have to do is pay a $20 processing fee to find out what portion of the $3,604,006 in available award money they have "won." Like all "too-good-to-be-true" offers, this one definitely is!

http://www.bbbenc.org/ca_Jul2005.html

WTF? I JUST recieved this SCAM w/ the LVAAP. Of coarse it sounded way too good to be true, so I decided to look it up on the net before I sent in that $20.00
This is horrible for this crooked compnay to do this type of thing.
I am sure when I say this, that I speak for everyone...."these peope need to be reported and penalized HARD for this scam".
How in the hell is this ok for them to get away with this?
Karma....right now, this company is laughing it up, but what goes around comes around. We need to get together and SCAM them back! To all the people that they even attempted to send this dumb prize letter out to, the company should have to PAY us in some way...whether its $1,000 or a million.
I am really bumbed that the letter was a hoax but...........?

my husband nearly fell for the exact same hoax, i knew something was fishy about it, why in the heck would you need to send money if you've supposedly won money?! i'm glad i read your message, because i'm going to get them back, not only w/ karma, but a $20.00 bill drawn by my 8 year old daughter!!!

Here is another name they have been using prizes earch express or prizesearchexpress.com. The certificate looks real and the checks too.

Category:
Corrupt Companies Submitted: 10/26/2005 1:03:55 PM
Modified: 10/26/2005 1:04:00 PM

Las Vegas Nevada Actionable Award Program LVAAP - Prize Search Express - National Bureau Of Prize Information ripoff, thiefs, heartless, dishonest, liars, horrible, careless Las Vegas Nevada

Company
Las Vegas Nevada Actionable Award Program-Prize Search Express -National Bureau Of Prize Information
Address:
PO Box 98835/98855
Las Vegas Nevada 89195
U.S.A.
Phone Number:

Fax:


Okay. My first notification I received in the mail was in early October. I was really shocked and excited and I wasted no time writing a $20 check; however, there were some things that I found kind of fishy.

First of all, they said they had been trying to contact me, but I did not even know if they had my number, or my email address to begin with. Secondly, there was a choice on the bottom that read "Check here if you have not recevied any monies." Hello! Monies is not a word. Third, they didn't even have a phone number or email address listed. I wanted to confirm that way.

These people did a really good job at making it look like a real, important document. What's worse is that a couple of weeks after I sent in my $20, the company sent me a notification saying that I had not responded and they asked me, "Do you want the money?" Duh!

Along with this next notification, I received 2 other awards notifications that I had won more money. Two of them were different prize amounts, one being higher. They were all different! And, all of them required $20 fees. I had already sent $20 the first time, so why in the hec did they want more? That sent up a red flag for me right there.

Overall, whoever is doing this to people needs to be stopped because like me, people want to believe that it is true and that their lives are going to change dramatically. Man, some people raise you up just to bring you down! The documents may look real, but it's a SCAM! To this day, I have not seen one penny of that money. Don't get ****ed into this. You can try to track them down, but you won't. Scamming is what they do best!

Sarah
Cuero, Texas
U.S.A.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff162190.htm

THESE FOLKS ARE STILL AROUND AND SENDING OUT THOSE BOGUS WINNINGS

Corrupt Companies
Submitted: 11/10/2005 7:07:10 PM
Modified: 11/10/2005 7:07:00 PM
LVAAP Con Artists At Their Best Or So They Think ripoff Las Vegas Nevada

LVAAP
PO Box 98855
Las Vegas Nevada 89195-0434
U.S.A.
Phone Number:

I am a single mother of two who almost fell for THE letter.

The letter that obviously a lot of other people have received.

This compamy should be ashamed of themselves for sending out that bogus letter informing me I had won over three million dollars. I actually considered sending the B*****D's my twenty dollars too. I can barely pay my bills and here this ripoff company scamming money off people. Whether these people have the money to spare when they put their trust into this dummy company or not, it's just wrong.In this day and age, one would think that this kind of thing would not still be happening.

It's a disgrace!!!

Angela
Jackson, Tennessee
U.S.A.

For thosed of you who fell for this and for those of you who are looking into this to get these slimy little rodents out of business flood the las vegas better business beuaru with complaints and go to the las vegas attorney general for those of you who sent them money and file a class action lawsuit against them for fruadulent claims of won lottery money becuase then their business license would be suspended or revoked until any and all lawsuits filed and complete.

here are the links for Las Vegas BBB (email) info@vegasbbb.org
Office of the Attorney General
Nevada Department of Justice
Las Vegas Office
555 E. Washington Ave Suite 3900
Las Vegas, Nevada 89101
(702) 486-3420
Fax - (702) 486-3768 website www.ag.state.nv.us/

I got the same letter twice in a week, same amount, same exact form my name was on the top and of course the $20.00 fee. I thought why should I pay someone in order to get money but some doubt was still there and Im glad I did a search. All they are going to get from me is an envelope with their letter back telling them they can go scam their own mothers.
mea
Allentown, PA
U.S.A.

I just recieved one of these letters in the mail today. I looked them up on the internet and all I found was this website. Thank You all for posting this info. I am taking this to a lawyer tomorrow and going to also file a fraud report.

This is still going on I just got one in the mail... I knew it sounded way to good to be true... Legal action should be taken against these morons!! I wonder how many elderly citizens have unwittingly sent in the money!!

If you want to shut down the LVAAP, take their Business Reply envelope, slap some Mailer Junk into the envelope, making it weigh more than 1 lb. . Post into the nearest mail box. Imagine 1 lb of post on a "no postage neccessary" letter .... (more than a buck) multiply that by people who read this.... (more than a few bucks) -- they get to pay postage and handling. Agh.. what a shame.

Man I just got another one, and apparently I am not suppose to tell anyone. I love this idea of filling the prepaid letter with lots of junk. Actually, I have two of them that arrived within one week. The one from Las Vegas, LVAAP The other one is from another crook group.

I.D. Address:
USSA
P.O. Box 98835 Las Vegas, NV 98193-8835

With LVAAP I supposedly won 3,341,006.00, whereas, with USSA I won 3,700,300.00.

These stupid criminals remind me of the dictators of this era or those that lie to their masses and/or try to twist the truth. All of these idiot need to wake maybe they will realize that they are now living in the age of the internet.

hahahah

Thank God for the internet.

My best wishes to those that posted and help expose these criminals.

Please, let us know what your lawyer tells you. We really should have them give us some money for these lies. If for nothing other than to teach a lesson never to paly this game again.

just got one from lvaap what a scam someone needs to take lvaap 20.00 and put in my pocket for the anguish that the people are getting from this a won 3,721,262.41 and there i have to pay for winning money to funny

Just recieved my winning notice from these scum ****ers. What i did is sent back the prepaid return envelope full of dirt. That way they will have to pay for the extra postage it cost's. Make them spend some money instead of taking mine.

My Sister who is 19 had gotten one from ussa saying she is a winner of 3,700,300.00. and she only needed to send a $20 fee to claim it well she did thinking she would get the money well just today she checked her mail and had 5 more letters from them one was us sweepstakes advisors 2 was National bureal of prize infomation 3 was prize search express and usapa all4 was from las vegas nv and 2 were from boca ranton fl these ppl really **** she had high hope we are trying to do some thing abt this its so mean to treat ppl this way and also i wanted to say thank u misti1975 for the bbb and aturney sights i called them i have to send a copy of my money order recipt really wish we could have found this sight be for she sent money in

Pasted a brand new shiney penny to the back of the return form with a note that said, "SEE BACKSIDE" and along with the new penny I put, "Please take the other $19.99 out of my $3,341,006.00.............thank you!