Scammers are falsely claiming to be with BBB in phone calls claiming that consumers have won a prize in a lottery or sweepstakes. The scammers are asking consumers to pay anywhere from $250 to $350 upfront by wire to receive the prize.
The callers are not with BBB, and there's no prize. If the money is wired, it's lost.
One consumer told BBB in Dallas that she got a call from someone claiming to be with BBB, who told her that she won a large amount of money and to wire $500 to a Mr. White in Florida.
Another consumer said, "I was informed by a Mr. Young that I had won a large sum of money from a raffle drawing. He also said I have to Western Union 365 dollars. He also mentioned an agent Ms. Walker and Mr. Moore coming to my house."
"The BBB doesn't make any calls about winning prizes," said Jeannette Kopko, spokesperson for the BBB serving Dallas and Northeast Texas. "The scammers are using the BBB name to try to gain some credibility. Don't fall for it, and don't wire money upfront to anyone you don't know."
BBB offers these tips on prize schemes:
• If you've really won a prize, you don't have to pay anything in advance -- not a penny for taxes, fees, or anything else. It's illegal to charge upfront for a prize.
• If anyone claims you've won a prize, been awarded a grant, or makes some other alluring offer but wants you to send hundreds or thousands of dollars in advance by wire, don't do it. Scammers like to use this method of payment because once the money is wired, it's in their hands and it's almost impossible for the victim to get it back.
• If you get a call or email about wiring money upfront, just ignore it. If you've actually lost money to a prize scheme, report it to your local police department and to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.ftc.gov.
For more tips on avoiding scams, see BBB's Scam Source at
http://www.dallas.bbb.org/scam-source/
For more on phone fraud, see FTC's "Who's Calling? Recognize and Report Phone Fraud" at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/phonefraud/index.shtml
