Allstate warns of scam

  Insurance giant Allstate is warning its clients, as well as everyone else, about a scam.

  Someone has been sending out letters claiming to be from Allstate.

  The letters read the receiver has won a $250,000 grand prize.

  All they have to do to get the prize money is cash a check sent with the letter and then send it back to cover taxes.

  Of course it’s a scam.

  Gerry Hartmann, of Roanoke, said it showed up in his mailbox two days ago.

  He thought he might be rich!

  “It is a quarter of a million dollars,“ Hartmann said.

  He took it to his bank where an employee saw it was a scam and delivered the news.

  Allstate said they’ve had similar reports from several other states.

  Hartmann happens to be an Allstate client, but the insurance company believes the scam artists have not gotten their hands on any client lists.

  Hartmann believes they probably picked his address at random.

  You can read Allstate’s official news release on the scam here.