Joy Impellezzere may just be the luckiest person on earth -- or at least appears to be -- judging by all the mail she's been receiving.

"I could win a car and there are the cheques made out to me," she said. "One for $7,000,000."

Letter after letter congratulates Impellezzere on winning but she isn't fooled.

"I thought I'm not sending it in because the next thing you know I'm going to get another letter that says 'your prize is here but you have to send x number of dollars again'. I don't have that kind of money I'm not that foolish," she said.

For about a year, she's been saving all the junk mail that claims she's won a prize never responding to any of them.

"I just keep putting them in the drawer until I saw something on your program and wondered if Chris Olsen would like to go through some of these."

I gladly went through them. They come from all over: Australia, different parts of the U.S. and even Europe.

At best they are nothing more than sales promotions with poor odds of winning. At worst they are a scam.

One promotion charges you $6 to be eligible to win --but the fine print on the back reveals you'll pay $19.90 a month from then on for a membership in a vaguely described travel and merchandise discount group.

Canada's Competition Bureau advises that if you've really won a prize, legitimate companies do not ask for your credit card number, bank account information, or social insurance number. And if you have to pay to collect, the promotion is a scam

"It's sad, Chris it's very sad especially if they are going after senior citizens," Impellezzere said.

Art Kube, the president of the National Pensioners and Senior Citizens Federation shares her concern. He says low income seniors are the most vulnerable.

"[They think] if I make that $20 investment, I could make a million dollars," he said.

"I think these things should be outlawed. That kind of merchandizing crosses the line. We should be fairly tough on that."

He says families with elderly relatives should pay attention to the offers coming in the mail and even work with the senior's bank to be contacted if suspicious cheques start being cleared through.

To cut down on the amount addressed junk mail clogging up your letter box, contact the

Canadian Marketing Association and sign up for the Do Not Contact Service.

If you have seniors in the family sign them up too. It won't stop all the letters, but it will stop most.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen