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At Publishers Clearing House the winning is always free and you never have to pay any amount to enter or win. If you receive a check claiming to be for a legitimate sweepstakes prize and are asked to cash it and wire or send a portion back — STOP — you are the victim of a fraudulent contact. Consumers should always remember that at Publishers Clearing House no payment or fee is ever necessary to enter or claim a prize. The client had received a phone call indicating that Publishers Clearing House selected him as a backup winner when the first winner did not satisfy everything. He was told the process of receiving the prize was complex. It involved proof of ID and going to his bank in order to make a tax payment.
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To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission. First they copy images and content from the PCH Prize Patrol official Facebook account.
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Because of this lamentable fact, we want to show you what to look out for so that you can avoid these kinds of frauds and how to protect yourself from Publishers Clearing House impersonator scams that emerge from time to time. I live in a retirement community in Green Valley, AZ. I volunteer for our Sheriff's Department taking calls from people who have been scammed. We are constantly warning citizens of this and other scams and what to do and not do. It is so hard to convince some people to not send money. We will even call PCH to verify if their name was picked as a winner.
Warren prize prompts scammers in Valley - WKBN.com
Warren prize prompts scammers in Valley.
Posted: Fri, 01 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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If you've already sent money to a PCH scammer, contact your local police office. You'll also need to be extra cautious in the future because scammers consider people who have already been scammed to be easy prey, and there's a good chance that you will be targeted again. You don't have to give Publishers Clearing House your address, PCH account number, bank account number, driver's license number, or any other confidential information when you enter. If your prize notification asks for money to pay for taxes, to release the prize, to pay for customs, or for any other reason, it's a scam. However, you may be notified of smaller prize wins by mail or email, so continue to read the other signs of a legitimate PCH win. Thankfully, a number of people came to the rescue and told the user to stop communicating with the scammers.
Beware of These 5 Publishers Clearing House Scams
Just this year, a Florida woman won $40,000 from a PCH prize, according to a newspaper account. If you have received a letter or email from Publishers Clearing House and wondered about the legality of its claims, here’s what you need to know. The second kind of Publishers Clearing House impersonator scam involves trying to extract money from a person.
As our fans well know, Publishers Clearing House is a famous brand notorious for handing out massive sums of money. Unfortunately, because PCH is such a recognizable name tied to big-money winners, this dynamic lends itself to different Publishers Clearing House impersonator scams and swindlers using our good name. Or that doing so would improve their chances of winning a prize. PCH appears to be a scam, but it may have employees who are using the names and phone numbers of their game players to tell them they have won a big prize, but the winner will have to pay the first year's taxes! These people always have eastern European accents, speak in the upper register of voice (higher frequencies), refer to themselves as "Mr" with a "Waspy" like "Brown," "Smith," "Johnson," etc.
Then they use this content to target people who follow the PCH page — and inform targets that they’ve won. Eventually, the scammers ask for up-front payments, a portion of the winnings, or financial data. This scam starts with a phone call informing you that you’ve won a cash prize, a new car, or a vacation. In order to claim the prize, you need to send money to the organization to pay for processing fees or other charges. Publishers Clearing House notes that scammers might request money via Western Union, MoneyGram, Green Dot Cards, assorted gift cards and even sometimes tell you to send cash through the mail. At PCH we include a Sweepstakes Facts insert in every promotional offer we send.
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Kenmore woman doesn't fall for scam letter posing as Publishers Clearing House - WKBW 7 News Buffalo
Kenmore woman doesn't fall for scam letter posing as Publishers Clearing House.
Posted: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
As part of a settlement, PCH agreed to pay $18.5 million to provide refunds, among other things. Not every Publishers Clearing House customer will be eligible for a refund. If you've gone through the steps above, but you're still not sure if your win notice is legitimate, contact PCH directly to ask them to verify your prize. ¹ The score you receive with Aura is provided for educational purposes to help you understand your credit. It is calculated using the information contained in your Equifax credit file. Lenders use many different credit scoring systems, and the score you receive with Aura is not the same score used by lenders to evaluate your credit.
Publishers Clearing House began in 1953 as a service that hawked magazine subscriptions. Responding to competitors, the company began to entice homeowners by offering them “sweepstakes” — chances to win tens of thousands and then millions of dollars. As it stands, there are several types of PCH impersonator scams that fraudsters will utilize. On that note, let’s take a look at how to stay safe against potential PCH impersonator scams. Publishers Clearing House works diligently to fight scams, both by working with law enforcement officials and through public education.
During those times, i did some research on his phone number and found it was from Jamaica and saw reports of it being a scam. Later, i would get calls from a "private number" from them, and answered only once, then answered no more calls; they called up untilaround mid-night that evening. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices.
At Publishers Clearing House we do not notify major prize winners by e-mail. First I need to inform you that you did not hear from the real Publishers Clearing House. PCH would never request that you send money to claim a prize and we never notify major prize winners by phone or email. The information you provide is entered into our PCH Scam database which we share with the Federal Trade Commission. Their database is then shared with law enforcement authorities around the country. If you receive a telephone call from someone claiming you have won a sweepstakes prize and are asked to send money — STOP — you have not heard from a legitimate sweepstakes company.
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