Lottery and sweepstake scams

Find out all about the scams that are targeting seniors
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Larry R.
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Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2023 4:57 pm

Lottery and sweepstake scams

Post by Larry R. »

Lottery scams will be familiar to many people and victims can be targeted by phone, email and even through the post.

Regardless of how the contact is made, the process of the scam is pretty much the same. Scammers will contact an older adult to tell them they've won a lottery or prize of some kind. The victim will be told that if they want to claim their winnings, they must send money, cash, or gift cards up front to cover supposed taxes and processing fees. These claimed taxes/fees can often run into thousands of dollars.

Lottery scammers may impersonate well-known lottery/sweepstakes organizations (like Publishers Clearing House or Powerball) or even companies that have no connection to lotteries (such as BMW, Facebook or Google) to build trust among their victims.

Of course, no prize will ever be delivered. The fraudsters will continue to try to convince the victims to send even more money by telling them their winnings will arrive soon. Many of these scammers continue to call their victims for months and even years after defrauding them out of an initial sum of money.
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