I recently received an email from the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes telling me that I had won a major prize.  There is only one problem.  Publishers Clearing House does not notify winners by email.  Phony contests and sweepstakes have been a common and lucrative scam for many years and people still fall victim to them.  It is hard enough to win a contest that you enter, however, it certainly is difficult to win a contest you have not even entered.  Scammers use phony contests to gather personal information from you, such as your Social Security number to make you a victim of identity theft.  Other times they require you to send in money for taxes or administrative fees.  This is a tip off that the contest is a phony.  Real contest holders never ask you for tax money to be paid to them.

TIP

Don’t pay anything to anyone who has told you that you have won a sweepstakes and of course, do not give out your personal information to anyone telling you that you have won a contest that you have not entered.  You can contact your local Attorney General or the FTC for information about purported sweepstakes.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”  Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and click on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”