BARABOO, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin seems to be in the sights of scam artists using fake checks and bogus sweepstakes promises to separate people from their money, a postal official says.

Just ask George and Violet Flores of Baraboo, who did a little investigating this week and unmasked the offer they received as a fraud.

The letter appeared to be from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. It notified them that they were the winners of $250,000, a portion of a $9 million sweepstakes.

Attached was a check for $4,975, apparently deducted from the winnings.

All they had to do was cash the check and use $2,800 to pay the taxes before getting the full prize.

First they had to call the alleged claim agent, "Leo Parker," who would give them "further clarification and instructions on claiming (their) big winning."

Violet Flores said her husband called "Parker," who said the $2,800 should be sent to an address in Ajax, Ontario.

That's when the Floreses took an extra step that "Parker" never mentioned. They called the bank that issued the check. They were told the account was real -- but it had recently been closed out.

Their next stop?

They took the letter and check to the Baraboo Post Office and reported the incident.

The case is nothing new for U.S. Postal Inspector Lori Groen, who is with the Milwaukee Postal Inspection Field Office.

She said she currently is working on five similar cases in the state.

"They're probably targeting Wisconsin right now," she said. "They come in waves, but right now we're seeing a lot of them."

She said the newest scams involve fraudulent checks that are made out to the victim, who is instructed to cash the check and send part of the money back as a fee.

By the time the bank identifies the check as fake, the victim has already sent the fee and had it cashed by the scammer.

The scam artists also can use high-tech tricks to make the offers look legitimate, such as pulling legitimate company logos off of Web sites and using color printers.

The best bet, Groen said, is to be skeptical of anything that announces you have won a contest you didn't enter, or anything that requires paying a fee or giving personal information to get the prize.

Violet Flores said she is concerned that others may not be as wary as she and her husband were.

"What if this was a young couple and they were in dire financial straits? They might get this in the mail, cash the check, send the $2,800 and say, 'Oh boy, we won."'

Only to learn later they had been scammed.

The Baraboo News Republic called the Ontario number listed in the letter and spoke with a man who identified himself as "Parker." But the man, speaking in an accent, insisted "you must have dialed the wrong number" and said he never spoke with the Floreses.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)