Has this ever happend to you?

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Today I went and checked the mail. After coming back home and going throught the mail I come to an envelope addressed to me. Inside I find a letter from a lotto company in Austrailia. Yes I remember getting their email a few months back and had just deleted it. Anyhow I read the letter and it tells me that I have won $125,000.00 and they have a check waiting to be paid to me in the way that I choose. I can have it deposited into my account or they will deliver to my door. Then it says they have enclosed a check for me for $2900.00 to help cover the cost of taxes on my winnings. I look at the check and it looks real. I am thinking ok there has got to be a catch somewhere. The letter also states that I need to call the 2 phone numbers listed and will be told how to claim the remainder of my winnings. I only have until January 20, 2007 to do this. I try calling the first number and get a recording that their mailbox is full to call back later, so I call the second number and get the same message. When my partner gets home I show him the letter and the check. He also tries calling and gets the same messages. So he says well there is one of those banks right down by the grocery store why don't we stop in on our way to the store. We go into the bank and I hand them the check and ask if it is genuine. They say yes it is and ask if I have an account with them. I don't so they just start counting out the money to me. Now I have this money and can not reach anyone on the phone for the numbers they gave me. I am sure that this is a scam somewhere but don't know where. I called my sister who works at a bank and she said that they were scams and that the bank probably should not have cashed the check. What do you know about these things? What would you do in this situation? Has this ever happend to you before?