By: Rusty Brooks

Sweepstakes and lottery scams have been around for a long time, and they’re still going strong. In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 116,000 reports of fraud involving prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries that swindled the unwary out of $166 million. The median loss was $1,000, AARP reported.

The NY Post reported on a widespread fake sweepstakes, where people cash in fake checks and end up paying large ban fees. New Yorkers are receiving letters trumpeting that they are winners of the “Supermarket Customer Sweepstakes Raffle Draw” — and their prize is a cool $880,000.

The congratulatory missive includes a realistic looking first payment check of $8,000 and requests a processing fee of $7,000 to release the remaining “payout”.

In the end the check bounces and people are stuck with a bounced check. The mechanism of how this scam fully operates is not expanded on in this NY Post article, however often the scam appears in the form of an inheritance from a distant relative and will require the person “inheriting” the money to provide their banking info and social security number. Some scams will even claim that you won an international lottery, and have a 800# to claim your prize, and they have actual people on the other end of the line asking for banking information.

NY Post reported:

The state attorney general’s office has received 172 complaints about sweepstakes scams since 2019 and 46 in 2021, said Fabien Levy, an AG spokesman.

In the first nine months of 2021, the Federal Trade Commission received 3,856 complaints from New York consumers about “prize/sweepstakes/lottery scams,” said Jay Mayfield, an FTC spokesman. That’s a 30 percent spike from the 2,970 complaints lodged about these scams during the same time period in 2020, Mayfield said

AARP reported:

he initial contact in a sweepstakes scam is often a call, an email, a social media notification or a piece of direct mail offering congratulations for winning some big contest. But there’s a catch: You’ll be asked to pay a fee, taxes or customs duties to claim your prize. The scammers may request bank account information, urge you to send money via a wire transfer, or suggest you purchase gift cards and give them the card numbers.

Regardless of the method, once scammers ensnare someone they’ll keep coming back, calling victims for months or even years, promising the big prize is only one payment away. If you stop paying or cut off contact, they may threaten to harm you or a loved one or to report you to authorities, according to the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica, the country of origin for many lottery cons. (Be suspicious of any unexpected call from a number starting with 876, the area code for Jamaica.)

Older people are popular targets: According to an August 2020 Better Business Bureau study, 80 percent of the money lost to sweepstakes scammers comes from people over age 65.