Lady Loses $1,100.00 in Fake Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes Scam (1 Viewer)

[Jay Taylor]

Last night on our local NBC station they reported that a lady received a call telling her that she won $500,000.00 in the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

She was then told that the check would be delivered to her door but first she needed to send them $1,100.00 to pay the taxes on the prize. She was told to keep it a secret and wire the $1,100.00 to their address in Romania. She wired them the money.

Then she was called again and told that the $1,000,000.00 winner was disqualified and she would get that money too. Now they wanted her to send them $30,000.00 for taxes.

When she told them that she didn’t have that much money they tried negotiating the price down to $1,000.00.

When she told them that she couldn’t even borrow the money they hung up.

This sounds like another offshoot of the 419 Nigerian scam.

Here’s the link: Publisher's Clearinghouse Scam

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Theres an $1,100 lesson in being a dumbass well learned.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Well, I'm sure I probably wouldn't have let it get to this point, but if I did the adress in Romania would've sent up a giant red flag...

 

[Peter Kline]

Yea, Romania isn't anywhere near Port Washington New York. If you win, there will be a truck parked outside and a knock on your door!!!

 

[Rob Lutter]

They're not getting shit from me if I can't get one of those huge cardboard novelty checks

 

[brentl]

Dumbass!

B

 

[Jimi C]

Thank you Brad Edwards, for being in our corner

 

[Jay Taylor]

Brad Edwards is great! He has a news segment “Brad Edwards in Your Corner” most evenings here that reveal scams, fraudulent business practices and whether or not something for sale works or not. If you’re a business owner, the last thing you want to see is Brad Edwards and his camera crew walking into your place of business.

Many of his segments are hilarious when he exposes a hot selling item that doesn’t work very well, like the ink cartridge refilling kits. Sometimes he tests something that works when you may not expect it to work, like the ultrasonic dog repelling devices.

As for the lady that was taken by the fake Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes scam, I’m glad that she went on TV to spread the word on these guys. She may have reduced the number of victims.

I don’t think I have enough concern for my fellow man to set myself up for ridicule by appearing on TV like she did. Hopefully I’ll never be gullible enough to fall for something like this.

Who knows what we’ll fall for if when we become elderly we are among the unfortunate ones that have lost most of their reasoning powers.

Jay Taylor

 

[JustinCleveland]

That's what the scammers hope for, that nobody they target will tell anyone else about the scam because they are so embarrased. It's the same reason the Nigerian scam is so hard to track.

 

[Randy Tennison]

We had an instance in Kansas City area that was heartbreaking. An elderly man walked into the local police, wanting to set up a trust fund for crime victims. When they talked to him, he told them he had won money in a foreign lottery, and wanted to donate most of it to help crime victims and children.

The detective was almost in tears when he described having to tell this gentleman that he was, himself, a crime victim, and that he wasn't going to win a million dollars. He had lost money.

If you want a good laugh, go to 419eater and read some of the letters. This guy baits the 419 scammers, and has some fun doing it.

I set up a phoney email address, and posted messages to 10 message boards using that email address. As of this morning, I've had over 30 419 emails to that account. Time to start messing with the criminals!

 

[Jay Taylor]

Some of those stories at the 419eater forum are so funny we might need to start a reality TV show based on them.