A caller indicates that they are with a large sweepstakes company (IE: Publishers Clearing House, Readers Digest, etc.) and that you have won the grand prize. They typically continue to describe the amount of money won, and ask questions about how you would like to recieve your winnings. In addition, the caller may ask that you provide some personal information to prove who you are and to verify that you are indeed the winner. Once the information is provided, a discussion will commence on the tax burden which is associated with your prize. At this point, the caller offers methods of how you can pay the taxes so that the winnings can be delivered. In one case we know of, the caller managed to get someone to pay over $40,000 "for taxes" up front. Once the payment has been made, the victim never hears from the caller again.
Scammers have become very good with their presentations, and may even offer a website that can be visited to verify their validity. The website is of course bogus. The bottom line is, you should never pay money or give personal information to a stranger that calls. No matter how convincing or knowledgeable the call sounds, requests for money prior to receiving a prize or service is a scam!
Bringing useful news to educate our clients is one more way that Home Helpers has been making life easier for over a decade. Call us today at 704-909-7958. And as always, you can find us on our website, Facebook and Google+!
