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Public Beware! – Local Man Falls Victim to Publisher’s Clearing House Scam

   Written by on January 11, 2018 at 2:39 pm

KEYSVILLE – On Tuesday of this week, a local man notified The Southside Messenger that Publisher’s Clearing House (PCH) would be delivering a 2.5 million dollar check and a new car to his home at 3 p.m. After speaking with him and getting a few more details on the events that led up to him receiving such a prize, we began investigating his claim.

In speaking with an actual Publisher’s Clearing House representative, we confirmed that the man had indeed fallen victim to a scam. In the victim’s claim, he stated that he had “filled out paperwork to prove his identity, and that the organization had sent him advances of $5,000 on multiple occasions.” He also stated that he had been contacted about “covering the taxes on the prize money.” The Publisher’s Clearing House representative confirmed that their organization never sends out prior phones calls or other correspondences to the winners of such large prizes and that the winners of large prizes would receive a surprise visit from a real representative.

The victim truly believed he had won a prize from the Publisher’s Clearing House organization as the scammer used the name of a real PCH representative. The victim stated that “he had spoken with David Sayer from Publisher’s Clearing House on several occasions.” While “Dave Sayer” is an actual representative of PCH’s Prize Patrol, he is not authorized to contact a winner by any means other than a real surprise visit from PCH’s Prize Patrol.

The Publishers Clearing House website clearly states the procedure of how a winner is informed, and it reads as follows:

At PCH winners of our major prize awards are notified live and in person by our famous Prize Patrol. Since PCH awards a steady range of prizes throughout the year, at our option we may notify winners of lesser prize amounts via an overnight express carrier such as UPS, FedEx or USPS Express Mail and occasionally via email. Major prize award and SuperPrize winners are not notified via email. Prizes are awarded within eight weeks of final winner selection.

Only PCH is authorized to notify you of a win from a PCH giveaway. There are never any strings attached to winning a Publishers Clearing House prize. We do not ask for bank account information. There is no processing fee, tax or special handling charge required to win and our prizes are delivered free of charge to the winners. If you were contacted by someone claiming to represent Publishers Clearing House, or claiming to be a PCH employee and were asked to send or wire money, send a pre-paid gift card or a Green Dot MoneyPak card, or cash a check and send a portion back to them as payment for any reason to claim a Sweepstakes prize – STOP – You have not heard from the real Publishers Clearing House.

If you think you have fallen victim, please call the Publisher’s Clearing House scam hotline at 1-800-392-4190.

Also, always inform the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office if you have been a victim of this type or any type of scam, at 434-542-5141.

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