Accessibility Statement

Do You Have to Pay to Claim a PCH Prize?

Greetings, fans and friends!

Do you have to pay to claim a PCH prize? If you’ve won a Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes, is there a fee in order to receive your winnings?

The answer is absolutely NOT. Not only are PCH sweepstakes and giveaways always FREE to enter, you never have to pay a penny to claim a PCH prize – of any amount – EVER!

In fact, if anyone tells you – either by phone; email; or social media like Facebook or Twitter or Instagram; that you’ve won a PCH prize and you must make some sort of payment in order to claim it, THIS IS A SCAM!

Paying to Claim a Prize? That’s a PCH Scam!

Let’s break it down here:

  • Publishers Clearing House would never ask you to pay to claim a prize of any amount.
  • Publishers Clearing House would never call winners in advance, would never send you a Facebook friend request, and would never engage in any other type of social media conversation with you!
  • For major prizes, the PCH Prize Patrol will deliver your prize check to you in person – along with balloons, champagne and roses.
  • If you are asked to send cash or a check … or purchase a Green Dot MoneyPak prepaid card or any other cash card – DON’T DO IT! The scammer will ask for the numbers located on the back of the card.  Once they have this information they are able to access the money quickly.  And once the money is gone, it’s gone forever.

There are NEVER any fees to claiming a prize!

If there’s one thing to remember here, fans and friends, it’s that if you become a PCH prize winner, we pay YOU! You NEVER have to pay us.

At Publishers Clearing House the winning is ALWAYS FREE, and there are NEVER any fees to claiming a prize!  If someone tells you that you’ve won a prize, but that in order to claim it you need to give them money for any reason – STOP – it’s a SCAM!

I hope I’ve made this all perfectly clear. At PCH, we love to make entering enjoyable and exciting, we love to award prizes and we love to make dreams come true!

If you believe you’ve been contacted by a scammer, please fill out our Scam Incident Report right away!

Stay safe … and have fun!

Debbie K.
PCH Creative

P.S. If you’ve learned one important lesson from this blog, what is it? Please comment below!

Other blogs you may like:

Beware of PCH Scams on Facebook and Instagram

How to Avoid Sweepstakes Scams

Important Message: Protect Yourself from Scammers

Leave your comment

Comments

  1. Yes I have had a couple of notices but ignored. I just got a texted message saying I won a truck and 1,000,000.00 They gave me serial number Ticket numbers Batch numbers. It all sound great.

    1. Hello Cheryl, We’re so happy that you knew that wasn’t the real PCH who contacted you. We will never ask for money to claim a prize. We also don’t notify winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media. Please report all scam contacts to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. We encourage everyone to review the following Safety Tips to better protect themselves from being scammed: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2

  2. Five years now I have played day n night to win sweepstakes but I keep getting texts from fb pch saying that I have to pay to receive my winnings from pch sweepstakes, I have sent apple. Cards to Danielle and Daniella Lam but I have not been paid why?
    Nor$$$$$$$ston1@gmail.com

    1. Hello Norris, You are definitely describing a scam. No one from PCH will send you winner notifications or ask for fees on Social Media. Winning is always free with PCH! Please report this scam to us by completing a scam incident report. Click this link to find out how: https://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. Stay safe and have fun!

  3. A guy named Howie Guja on FB asking me to buy apple card worth $200 for activation of my winnings and he said send the apple code to him. Is this guy a real PCH staff?

    1. Hello Donald, The real PCH doesn’t notify our major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask for money to claim a prize. Please report any details you have about that scam contact to us at this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. Stay safe everyone, and good luck!!

  4. I got a call telling me I won 2.5 millions dollars but I had to pay $4000 in order to get my money. Phone #$$$ $$$ $$$$. I asked them if they were a scam but he said no not at all.

    1. Hi Sylvia! Please be careful, that’s a scammer who is only pretending to be from PCH. Please do not call that number, do not give the scammer any personal info including bank account information, and definitely do not send them any money if they ask. Make sure to report that scam contact to us via the following link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. I encourage you to read these Safety Tips too: https://info.pch.com/fraud-protection. Stay safe!

  5. Hi it’s $$$$$$$$$$$$$$@gmail.com again. I would like to say I’m still playing day n night but I keep getting text messages saying I must I.D. me, and it will be FedEx’d to me. So what’s the truth PCH, it’s been 5 years I want my millions.

    1. Hi Norris! I’m sorry to tell you that was a scammer texting you, not the real PCH. It’s important to remember that PCH does not contact winners of a major prize via phone, text, email, mail, or on Social Media. Also, if anyone asks you for money for any reason to claim a prize, you can be sure they’re a scammer. Please don’t give them any money, or any personal information! You can report them to us at this link: https://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. We provide numerous videos, blogs, and tips to recognize these scammers here: https://info.pch.com/fraud-protection. Stay safe!