BBB Tip of the Week

Sun., May 17, 2015

About six months ago, retired New York school principal Harold Diamond won a multi-state Mega Millions lottery prize of $326 million. News reports shared that along with traveling, Harold and his wife, Carol, were giving serious thought to “ways to give back to the community they love.” Now emails are circulating claiming that Harold will be giving five random people $1 million, but it’s a scam.

The idea of a wealthy stranger giving millions to strangers sounds like the plot of a movie. Scammers are using this real-life event to convince people that this too-good-to-be true story could happen to them.

In an email, recipients are urged to contact the lottery winner’s “lawyer” for further directions on how to claim their gift of $1 million. Immediately the “lawyer” will ask for money to pay taxes or fees to release the prize. This is the classic lottery scam with this new real-life twist.

The Better Business Bureau offers the following advice for avoid lottery and sweepstakes scams:

• A legitimate sweepstakes will not make a winner pay fees.

• You can’t win a lottery or sweepstakes you didn’t enter. Unexpected emails, postcards or calls claiming that you’ve won something are most likely a scam.

• The only legal lotteries in the U.S. are state lotteries. Foreign lotteries are illegal and very often scams.

• Don’t provide personal information to anyone claiming you won something without verifying that the offer is legitimate through non-involved parties, such as your own lawyer, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office at (800) 551-4636 or BBB online at www.bbb.org.

• When someone requires you to pay by wire transfer or prepaid debit card, you could be dealing with a con artist.

• Once someone has paid, con artists usually come up with creative reasons why their victims need to give them more money.

If you have questions about an unexpected claim that you’ve won money, you can contact BBB for advice by calling (509) 455-4200.

If you have fallen victim to a sweepstakes or lottery scam, you can help others avoid becoming victims by reporting it to the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov/complaint, to the attorney general at www.atg.wa.gov/file-complaint and to BBB at http://go.bbb.org/scam.

By Erin T. Dodge, BBB editor

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