Ross King could hardly believe his eyes Tuesday evening when his wife showed him the letter.

“After a successful completion of the third category draws of EURO LOTTO … we are pleased to inform you of the official announcement today that you have emerged one of the winners …” read the opening sentence.

But it wasn’t the letter, which seems to have been created with a simple word processing program and is printed on regular computer paper, that excited King, a certified public accountant. It was the cashier’s check for $4,100 included in the envelope, which the letter said was to pay insurance and stamp duty on King’s $1.1 million prize.

“If it had just been the letter, I’d have thrown it in the trash can and wouldn’t think twice about it,” King said, “but it was the cashier’s check that gave me a little bit of hope.”

The letter serves as final notice for the lottery payment, it read, and the check was to serve as a loan “for those who cannot afford to pay the required charges.” The lump sum payment of $1.1 million would be paid via a certified check from the Westminster Bank of Switzerland, the letter said, and would be sent by overnight mail after the transfer fees were settled.

The check, which is printed on real check stock and bears the name “First Bank of Canyon Creek,” which is located in Richardson, Texas, looks authentic, King said.

“The convincing factor to me that it probably might not be a scam was that cashier’s check,” King said. “It is legitimate. I didn’t take it to the bank, but I imagine they’d probably cash it at the bank until the bank in Texas called it a counterfeit. If you go along spending the money, you’re out $4,000.”

Before King did anything with the check, he and his son searched the Internet for information about the company and the First Bank of Canyon Creek. A search for “Euro Lotto” proved the lottery was real, he said, but a subsequent search for “Euro Lotto third category” turned up page after page of warnings about the scam.

“That answers that question, but I’m sitting there looking at the cashier’s check and I’m saying, ‘This is a valid cashier’s check,’ ” he said.

Finally, King’s son typed in “First Bank of Canyon Creek” and reached the bank’s Web site, where a warning immediately popped up about the scam. He was disappointed, he admitted, but was glad he didn’t fall for it.

The address on the letter is for Jayce Security Inc., 4497 Homer St. 4th Floor, in Vancouver, British Columbia. However, a search on an online Canadian business directory turned up no such company and no such address.

A contact number for a “claims coordinator,” Angela Peters, was listed in the letter. When Peters was contacted by the Daily News, she said she was busy and to call back in 30 minutes. The next call reached a receptionist, who declined to give out the name of a supervisor or manager. Messages left for comment were not returned.

“This is a new twist on the Canadian lottery scam,” said Bowling Green Police Department Crime Analyst Barry Pruitt, referring to a scam where the addressee is led to believe he or she has won a large sum of money and must call a certain number to claim it. When that number is called, scam artists try to obtain a bank account number, then proceed to drain the account, he said.

“These people are very skilled liars,” Pruitt said, “so when they get you on the phone, they’re really good at getting your personal information.”

In the past two weeks, Pruitt’s heard of three local instances of this scam, he said. Anyone receiving a similar letter should not cash the check or call the phone number, he said, because once a crime like this is committed, it’s very hard to trace.

An easy way to avoid trouble with counterfeit checks is to have a little patience, said David Barr, spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). Federal law requires banks to place a hold on an out-of-state check – the typical length is five days, he said – and many people think once the hold is lifted, the check has been cleared. In reality, Barr said, the check isn’t cleared until the money actually appears in the customer’s checking account.

“There’s nothing out there that says you as a consumer can’t wait two weeks before you either sell your goods or, in this case, send the $4,100,” he said. “… If you don’t do that and you write this person a check, that $4,100 will never be deposited in your account, but it’s already left your account and there’s no way to get it back.”

There is no foolproof way to distinguish a counterfeit check from the real thing, Barr said; these days, technology makes it easy to replicate just about any document.

“It’s kind of bad that you have to turn somewhat cynical these days, but there are enough of these scams out there with counterfeit checks, even counterfeit Web sites, to try to trick you into giving out personal information, that you should always be a little bit skeptical in the back of your mind,” he said.

When dealing with potential scams, Pruitt’s rule of thumb is to remember an old axiom.

“We try to tell people all the time, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” he said.