A Twentynine Palms woman was scammed out of more than $100,000 since March. The Sheriff’s Department reports that the woman said she received a voice mail by a man who said he was the chief executive officer of Publisher’s Clearing House, and that she had won $2.5 million. But, he added, in order to claim her winnings, she first had to pay taxes on them. Between March and the end of July, the victim sent several wire transfers to unknown subjects who claimed to work for Publisher’s Clearing House. She finally realized it was a scam, but not before she sent $112,000. Ernest Figueroa offers these tips on how to avoid becoming a victim to this type of scam…
Winning a large sweepstakes prize is a dream come true for many people. However, that dream can quickly turn into a nightmare if the win notification is actually a sweepstakes scam.
- If you are called out of the blue that you won a prize, chances are it’s a scam.
- You can’t win if you didn’t enter the contest.
- In addition, you do not have to pay taxes, handling charges, or service fees, or wire any money, or buy gift or prepaid debit cards to receive a prize; those are sure signs of sweepstakes scams.
- Your taxes for winning a prize are either subtracted from your winnings or paid to the IRS at tax time.
- Nor should you cash a check and send back a portion of your winnings.
