She’s back! Actually, she has never left. I have been writing about scams related to Mavis Wanczyk for eight 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 about receiving a message through Facebook that purported to be from Mavis Wanczyk informing him that she was giving him $10,000 and that all she needed was for him to set up a Cash App account and provide the details to her so that she could transfer the money to him. Fortunately, he recognized that this was a scam and did not send the account information requested which if sent would have enabled the scammer to access the bank account or debit card linked to the Cash App account and steal his money. Similarly another Scamicide reader communicated with another Mavis Wanczyk impersonating scammer on the question and answer website Quora who lured him into sending money for a variety of reasons such as insurance and delivery costs in order to receive his “free” gift of $10,000 from Mavis Wanczyk.
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 or payments to receive a supposedly free gift.
Finally and most importantly, remember neither Mavis Wanczyk nor any other lottery winner is giving away money to strangers.
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