When it’s too good to be true...

Today I received a call claiming to be from PCH, I asked the caller, who had a hard-to -understand-forthis- old-white-lady accent, “What is PCH?’’

Supposedly, I’d won a $2.5 million prize, a 2023 Mercedes, and $5,000 a month for life! I explained that I had not entered any PCH sweepstakes in over a year. He explained that once you enter a sweepstakes, that entry remains in their system forever!

The caller gave me a prize number that ended with PCH. He asked that I use a different phone in the house to call a general manager in claims on a phone number and extension he provided while he stayed on the line. I told him I wouldn’t do that and hung up. He called back and recommended I contact the number he’d given me. Curious, I did just that. The “receptionist” had a similar accent, and the “general manager in claims” sounded just like the original caller. The person did ask for my name and age. I gave him the name and fudged my age, he later mentioned my full name including my middle initial and my physical address “for delivery.” He had congratulated me for having won this magnificent prize and advised that I invest carefully and contribute to my church.

He asked for the local sales tax rate so when they registered the Mercedes in my name, they could pay the sales tax and registration, and an insurance policy for the car. He also claimed that the IRS and Trade Commission were recording the call to make sure he told me that PCH would pay ALL the income tax on these prizes. I just had to go to a “prize center” - a Walgreens, Dollar General or Dollar Tree – and get a receipt for $750. Well, the only way to get a receipt would require handing over that amount!

He said the prize delivery would include $750 in cash to reimburse my fee.

I thought, “This process is nothing like the PCH commercials where the obvious prize van shows up and brings a huge check and balloons, etc.” This was too good to be true, so I hung up. He called me back and asked if I’d hung up on him. I hung up again.

I googled “Publishers Clearinghouse” on my cell phone, and found a link to report the fraud.

It’s an old saying, but a good one: “If it’s too good to be true, it is NOT true.”