Teh One Who Knocks
11-24-2015, 01:23 PM
By Patricia Sabatini / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://i.imgur.com/KPYcsYZ.jpg
This September — after nearly a decade of dutifully entering the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes — Dorothy Meloy of Jefferson Hills got the call she had dreamed about.
The man on the line said he was Dave Sayer from the Publishers Clearing House “Prize Patrol.” Mrs. Meloy, an 80-year-old widow, had won $3 million. Her heart fluttered.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God. I won!’” Mrs. Meloy remembered. “I got so excited.”
To collect her winnings — which also included a 2016 Mercedes Benz — Mrs. Meloy needed to wire $500 in “fees” to North Carolina. After she sent the money, the man called back to say she should send another $500, this time to an address in Orlando, Fla., to cover taxes. Mrs. Meloy complied.
Still, that wasn’t enough. The man now said she owed $15,000 to cover personal income taxes on her $3 million prize. The request seemed logical, she said.
“He really made it sound like it was for a good purpose.” After all, she said, “You don’t get nothing for nothing.”
Mrs. Meloy was instructed to mail the $15,000 in cash, wrapped securely in newspaper, and placed in a double envelope. She didn’t have that much money, so she got a cash advance from her Discover credit card.
“After I sent the $15,000, he called back and wanted more,” she said.
She now owed another $22,000. “He wanted me to use all my credit cards and get advances on them,” she said.
This time, Mrs. Meloy refused. She hated to let her dream go, but she had heart and diabetes medications to pay for.
“I said, ‘I realize [$3 million] is a lot of money, but I’m turning it down because I have to live and you are robbing me now.’”
The man tried several more times to contact her. “I quit answering the phone,” she said.
In all, Mrs. Meloy had given away $16,000, most of it borrowed.
“It really kills me that I’ve lost so much money, because, you know, it’s hard,” she said. “I’m living on Social Security.”
A spokesman for Long Island-based Publishers Clearing House said Mrs. Meloy’s story was heartbreaking.
“Obviously it’s a horrible story,” said Chris Irving, assistant vice president for consumer and legal affairs. “It’s one we are hearing, unfortunately, on a more frequent basis.”
Mrs. Meloy said the fake Mr. Sayer was so convincing that she had no idea she was being duped.
He called on Sept. 30, the very day that the real Publishers Clearing House was set to award $7,000 a week for life, she said.
“He tells me he’s Dave Sayer from Publishers Clearing House. I believed him because I recognized the name from some of the Publishers Clearing House letters.”
The damage to Mrs. Meloy’s finances has left a number of scars.
“I’m so ashamed of myself — that I fell for it,” she said. “I didn’t even want to tell my family.”
Eventually she told her family. And she agreed to an interview to try to prevent other people from being robbed.
Mrs. Meloy said she reported the scam to AARP, the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Postal Service. And she filed a complaint with the Jefferson Hills police. The department confirmed the report, but said it couldn’t release any details because an investigation was ongoing.
Mrs. Meloy said she found out recently that the Publishers Clearing House scammer had been calling her from an area code in Jamaica — calls he had billed to her number.
“The challenge [in catching the culprits] is that most of the scammers are not operating from the United States,” Mr. Irving said. The crime rings seem to be concentrated in Jamaica, Costa Rica and Canada, he said. “That makes it much more difficult for law enforcement to make arrests and get extraditions.”
Mr. Irving said filing a police report was the most important step that victims can take so the information gets circulated in criminal data bases nationwide.
Publishers Clearing House offers numerous tips on avoiding sweepstakes scams at info.pch.com/consumer-information/tips-a-warning-signs.
Mr. Irving said the biggest single thing that consumers need to know is legitimate sweepstakes, lotteries and contests don’t require people to pay taxes, insurance, handling or shipping charges or any other fees to collect a prize.
“You never have to send any money, for any reason,” he said.
“If they are asking for money, it’s not real.”
While consumers may have to declare winnings on tax returns, “There is never any money owed up front,” he said.
Consumers also should know that Publishers Clearing House does not contact winners by phone, Mr. Irving said. Instead, big winners are notified in person by the Prize Patrol, while winners of smaller prizes receive notice by certified mail.
Despite the warnings, sweepstakes and related scams continue to be a perennial on the Federal Trade Commission’s Top 10 consumer complaints list. And they continue to claim unsuspecting victims.
For Mrs. Meloy — the fleeting joy of believing she had won enough money to pay off her mortgage, help out her three children and “do a little fixing up around here” — has been mercilessly transformed into the sobering reality of being thousands of dollars in debt.
“It blows my mind,” she said last week. “[The crooks] want the money so fast that before you realize it, it’s gone.”
http://i.imgur.com/KPYcsYZ.jpg
This September — after nearly a decade of dutifully entering the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes — Dorothy Meloy of Jefferson Hills got the call she had dreamed about.
The man on the line said he was Dave Sayer from the Publishers Clearing House “Prize Patrol.” Mrs. Meloy, an 80-year-old widow, had won $3 million. Her heart fluttered.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God. I won!’” Mrs. Meloy remembered. “I got so excited.”
To collect her winnings — which also included a 2016 Mercedes Benz — Mrs. Meloy needed to wire $500 in “fees” to North Carolina. After she sent the money, the man called back to say she should send another $500, this time to an address in Orlando, Fla., to cover taxes. Mrs. Meloy complied.
Still, that wasn’t enough. The man now said she owed $15,000 to cover personal income taxes on her $3 million prize. The request seemed logical, she said.
“He really made it sound like it was for a good purpose.” After all, she said, “You don’t get nothing for nothing.”
Mrs. Meloy was instructed to mail the $15,000 in cash, wrapped securely in newspaper, and placed in a double envelope. She didn’t have that much money, so she got a cash advance from her Discover credit card.
“After I sent the $15,000, he called back and wanted more,” she said.
She now owed another $22,000. “He wanted me to use all my credit cards and get advances on them,” she said.
This time, Mrs. Meloy refused. She hated to let her dream go, but she had heart and diabetes medications to pay for.
“I said, ‘I realize [$3 million] is a lot of money, but I’m turning it down because I have to live and you are robbing me now.’”
The man tried several more times to contact her. “I quit answering the phone,” she said.
In all, Mrs. Meloy had given away $16,000, most of it borrowed.
“It really kills me that I’ve lost so much money, because, you know, it’s hard,” she said. “I’m living on Social Security.”
A spokesman for Long Island-based Publishers Clearing House said Mrs. Meloy’s story was heartbreaking.
“Obviously it’s a horrible story,” said Chris Irving, assistant vice president for consumer and legal affairs. “It’s one we are hearing, unfortunately, on a more frequent basis.”
Mrs. Meloy said the fake Mr. Sayer was so convincing that she had no idea she was being duped.
He called on Sept. 30, the very day that the real Publishers Clearing House was set to award $7,000 a week for life, she said.
“He tells me he’s Dave Sayer from Publishers Clearing House. I believed him because I recognized the name from some of the Publishers Clearing House letters.”
The damage to Mrs. Meloy’s finances has left a number of scars.
“I’m so ashamed of myself — that I fell for it,” she said. “I didn’t even want to tell my family.”
Eventually she told her family. And she agreed to an interview to try to prevent other people from being robbed.
Mrs. Meloy said she reported the scam to AARP, the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Postal Service. And she filed a complaint with the Jefferson Hills police. The department confirmed the report, but said it couldn’t release any details because an investigation was ongoing.
Mrs. Meloy said she found out recently that the Publishers Clearing House scammer had been calling her from an area code in Jamaica — calls he had billed to her number.
“The challenge [in catching the culprits] is that most of the scammers are not operating from the United States,” Mr. Irving said. The crime rings seem to be concentrated in Jamaica, Costa Rica and Canada, he said. “That makes it much more difficult for law enforcement to make arrests and get extraditions.”
Mr. Irving said filing a police report was the most important step that victims can take so the information gets circulated in criminal data bases nationwide.
Publishers Clearing House offers numerous tips on avoiding sweepstakes scams at info.pch.com/consumer-information/tips-a-warning-signs.
Mr. Irving said the biggest single thing that consumers need to know is legitimate sweepstakes, lotteries and contests don’t require people to pay taxes, insurance, handling or shipping charges or any other fees to collect a prize.
“You never have to send any money, for any reason,” he said.
“If they are asking for money, it’s not real.”
While consumers may have to declare winnings on tax returns, “There is never any money owed up front,” he said.
Consumers also should know that Publishers Clearing House does not contact winners by phone, Mr. Irving said. Instead, big winners are notified in person by the Prize Patrol, while winners of smaller prizes receive notice by certified mail.
Despite the warnings, sweepstakes and related scams continue to be a perennial on the Federal Trade Commission’s Top 10 consumer complaints list. And they continue to claim unsuspecting victims.
For Mrs. Meloy — the fleeting joy of believing she had won enough money to pay off her mortgage, help out her three children and “do a little fixing up around here” — has been mercilessly transformed into the sobering reality of being thousands of dollars in debt.
“It blows my mind,” she said last week. “[The crooks] want the money so fast that before you realize it, it’s gone.”