A Publishers Clearing House scam is making the rounds in Warren County claiming the recipient has won thousands of dollars, but requires the winner to send money before they can claim their prize.
The Warren County Sheriff’s Department posted an alert Wednesday afternoon warning people of this scam going around. A Rock Island resident was sent a letter and a check in the mail claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House and claiming the recipient won $750,000. The letter says to contact the company's branch office immediately and speak to agent “Vince Otto” for method of payment. The check sent with the letter was for $7,200.
The letter encourages the recipient to hurry because there is a one week hold on the winnings. It also advices that if the receipient wants the Prize Patrol Van to present the winnings on camera to advise the agent.
The letter sounds convincing until it requires the winner to pay taxes and processing fees and informs the winner not to tell anyone.
The letter states, “You are required by law by the International Sweepstakes and IRS by law to pay taxes and processing fees. Enclosed are funds to assist you with out of pocket expenses and enable you to pay our customs fee. Please contact your agent for further details. You can make deposit of your check through the ATM machine with your bank card or you can walk inside the bank to make the deposit. Contact or inform your agent immediately after the deposit in order to start processing your wining.”
The next section of the letter explains that this all has to be done confidentially.
It states, “Please be advised to contact your claims agent (Mr. Vince Otto) who will be adviseing you on how to claim your cash prize winnings. Please keep this award letter strictly confidential until your cash prize winnings have been processed and remitted to your designated account. It is out company policy to keep this letter and your cash prize winnings confidential to avoid double or false claims, identity theft and impersonation. You should in no scenario give out your personal info online or by phone to anyone in regards to your winnings.”
Publishers Clearing House is aware of the scams pretending to be associated with its company. On the Publishers Clearing House official website, it states, “If you are ever contacted by someone claiming to represent PCH, or claiming to be one of our employees, and asked to send or wire money (for any reason whatsoever, including taxes); or send a pre-paid gift card or Green Dot Moneypak card in order to claim a sweepstakes prize –don’t! It’s a scam. If you are sent a check, told it’s a partial prize award, and asked to cash it and send a portion back to claim the full prize award, don’t. The check is fake, but the scam is real!”
Publishers Clearing House says it will never ask for money to claim a prize and PCH employees would never contact anyone personally or in advance to notify you of a prize award. All SuperPrizes are presented live and in person without prior notice.
The PCH website states that the check sent in this scam may look official and even initially go through, but it can take weeks for the forgery to be discovered and the check to bounce. PCH stresses that whether the scam is by email, phone, mail or text, there will never be a purchase required to win the sweepstakes.
