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Our goal is to prepare you so that you may recognize and avoid sweepstakes scams at all cost! And the number one way to know the difference between a REAL PCH prize check and a FAKE PCH prize check is this …. If you do pay money to a scammer, the FTC recommends asking whatever company you sent money through to help recover it if possible. The Federal Trade Commission says the best way to spot a sweepstakes scam is to look at what the party offering the money asks you to do next. The agency says that if they try to get you to hand over money or send them your account information, it's likely a scam.
Beware of These 5 Publishers Clearing House Scams
You have to be able to enter to win the prize without doing anything which would cost money. Furthermore, you must be able to receive the prize even if you don't own a phone. Second, neither the IRS nor state taxes are required to be paid in order to get your prize money. It is owed only afterwards at filing or via estimated payments. In fact, the entire tax code is based on voluntary compliance. Why would 10% be owed for federal taxes and less than 0.32% be owed for state taxes?
People Really Do Win Prizes From PCH Sweepstakes
Second, if you are a client of a fee-only fiduciary financial advisor, reach out to them anytime you've been cold-called for money. Over the years, we have heard and learned to evaluate many different appeals for money both from illegal scam artists, legal financial sales pitches, and real financial predicaments. As fiduciaries, we are on your side to ensure that your goals are met. Third, receiving a real prize is never dependent on giving money first.
Publishers Clearing House Scam Alert Update: Beware of Fraudsters Pretending to be real PCH Employees!
The Publishers Clearing House scam is a type of sweepstakes scam in which fraudsters impersonate company representatives and claim you’ve won a prize. Yes, it’s only natural to be somewhat skeptical when you receive a check from PCH. Especially when there are people out there waiting to take advantage of those unsuspecting consumers.
Publishers Clearing House wants to warn you about scam artists sending out real looking checks in an attempt to get you to send money! Scam artists send you an official looking letter claiming to award you a sweepstakes prize. The letter may illegally use the name of a well known company like Publishers Clearing House or a sound alike name in an attempt to build trust. (These offers are not affiliated in any way with Publishers Clearing House!) The letter encloses a real looking check that may appear legitimate. The company says these drawings range from $1,000 all the way up their grand prize of $5,000 a week forever.How can they afford this?
Age-old Publishers Clearing House scam seems to be popping up more - WSOC Charlotte
Age-old Publishers Clearing House scam seems to be popping up more.
Posted: Thu, 03 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
When you contact the hotline, don't use the telephone numbers or email addresses included in your win notice. Instead, use publicly available ways to contact Publishers Clearing House. Publishers Clearing House doesn’t ask you to pay anything in return for winning a prize like a processing fee, tax, or special handling charges.
How do you know if a profile is the real Publishers Clearing House or a scam? First, nobody from Publishers Clearing House will ever send friend requests to you on Facebook. Second, the PCH Prize Patrol members (Dave Sayer, and Howie Guja) and PCH employees do not send private messages on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Third, Publishers Clearing House does not notify our winners through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media website. Finally, if you ever receive a message or contact asking you to send any money to claim a prize IT IS A SCAM. At Publishers Clearing House the winning is always free and you never have to pay any amount to enter or win.
We appreciate your visit to the fraud protection section of our site and thank you for educating consumers about scam artists who oftentimes use our good name in attempts to deceive. Unfortunately, some well-intentioned coverage of this issue has resulted in headline and text copy that may be misread to indicate that the scam is from the real Publishers Clearing House. Headlines like "Publishers Clearing House Scam", or "PCH Drawing — You May Be a Loser", or "Beware of the PCH Scam" can easily be interpreted as a representation against the real PCH. We please ask that all media reporting on these stories make it clear in headlines and text copy that the scam is being perpetuated by imposters and not the real Publishers Clearing House.
How can you recognize PCH scams?
No, it’s not a scam, but according to the company’s website, your odds of winning the Publishers Clearing House grand prize is one in 6.2 billion. 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. When PCH fans find and follow the page, the scammers message them to tell them they've won a prize — and ask for money before they can claim their "winnings." Victims hand over cash but never see a prize. 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.
Is the sender asking for money, a credit card number, or a bank account number? Some seemingly odd things are normal when you win sweepstakes, but others are not. Everyone's heard of the million-dollar sweepstakes SuperPrize Giveaways from PCH, but should you enter them? Find out everything you need to know to decide whether to spend your time on giveaways from Publishers Clearing House. So wrapping everything up, we can Verify, the Publishers Clearing House is real, people do win, but the company is often imitated by scammers. PCH agreed to the proposed court order that requires the company to turn over $18.5 million to the FTC.
During Friday's press conference, Judd said the scammers targeted an older woman with early signs of dementia. They told her she won $3 million in a Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes and that she needed to pay them taxes, Judd said. Police arrested Michael Lawrence and Max Richards in connection to the scam but could only recover around $40,000 of the money, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference on Friday, according to Fox 13.
In many cases the Publishers Clearing House name or sound-alike name is illegally used. Using a variety of bogus representations including "prepayment of taxes," "refundable deposits," and "shipping &handling," scam artists perpetrating these frauds seek to have consumers forward money. At PCH the winning is always free and you NEVER have to pay to claim a prize.
Publishers Clearing House doesn’t email or call its big winners. According to the company’s website, major prize winners are notified live and in-person by its famous Prize Patrol. The winners of $10,000 or less get the prize via an overnight express carrier like UPS, FedEx, or USPS Express Mail and occasionally via email. Therefore, you can rest assured that it's a scam if you're being notified of a big prize win through anything other than Prize Patrol. While Publishers Clearing House isn't a scam, it doesn’t mean that every win notification coming your way from the company is legit. According to the company’s website, your odds of winning the Publishers Clearing House grand prize is one in 6.2 billion.
The scheme involved the scammers contact the victims by phone and claiming they had won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes and would receive a variety of winnings, including vehicles and large sums of money. But to collect their prizes, they were first required to send cash, money orders and/or gift cards to pay for taxes, fees and IRS payments. Publishers Clearing House (PCH) does NOT make or authorize outgoing calls to consumers to sell merchandise or magazines, or to solicit sweepstakes entries.
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