She’s back!  Actually, she has never left.   I have been writing about scams related to Mavis Wanczyk for seven years but recently I have received emails from Scamicide readers telling me about various new incarnations of a variety of scams that share the same hook which is that Mavis Wanczyk is giving money away to lucky people.  Many of you may not remember the name of Mavis Wanczyk, but she was the lucky winner of a 758 million dollar Powerball drawing in 2017. Not long after she claimed her prize, a scam started appearing in which many people received emails with the message line referring to the Mavis  Wanczyk Cash Grant. The email indicated that you were chosen to receive a large cash grant from Mavis  Wanczyk. All the lucky strangers receiving the emails had to do was provide personal information in order to qualify for the grant. In addition, phony social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were also set up in Ms. Wanczyk’s name through which people were contacted with the same phony offer of free money informing them that in order to qualify for the grant they merely needed to provide personal information.

Recently a Scamicide reader told me that after he had tweeted a message on X (formerly Twitter) he was contacted by a scammer posing as Mavis Wanczyk that she liked his tweet and that she was sharing some of her Powerball winnings with a select amount of people that follow her on social media.  Fortunately, the Scamicide reader was smart enough to recognize that this was a scam.

TIPS

It is difficult to win a lottery you have entered. It is impossible to win one that you have never entered and neither lottery winners, nor anyone else is sending out messages through the Internet offering free money to anyone who responds with personal information. Never give out personal information that can make you vulnerable to identity theft unless you have absolutely verified that the party requesting the personal information is legitimate and has a legitimate need for the information.

Finally and most importantly, remember neither Mavis Wanczyk nor any other lottery winner is giving away money to strangers.

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