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

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Comments

  1. I’m Joshua $$$$$$ $$$$ of $$$$ $$$$$$$ $$$$$ Road $$$$$$$$$$$ TN $$$$$. I won at that very address.
    It was a long time ago but the winners letter said a 1 select winner. Am I still eligible for that prize? I also found $$$$ on my credit reports from $$$$$$$$$ Associate is that anything to do with your company.

    1. Hi Joshua! Thank you for contacting PCH. In order for us to assist you with your questions we will need a bit more information. We kindly ask that you contact us at your convenience. Our customer service representatives may be reached at http://bit.ly/ContactPCH. We look forward to hearing from you.

  2. I received a call saying I had won 7,500 per month for the rest of my life along with 3.5 million dollars. They emailed me also. But they ask for 2 vanilla Visa each with 495.00 on them. Then the following day ask for 1 with 500.00 on this. Is this for real?

    1. Hi Michelle! That is not the real PCH calling you; it’s a scammer that’s 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://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim!

  3. Someone called me from this number17143402251 I won a prize and need to pay them $300 on a American Express card to get it. I am not doing that they will be at my house at 2:30 today should I call the police?

    1. Hello Vicky! That is not the real PCH calling you; it’s a scammer that’s 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 you haven’t already done so, please 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://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim!

    1. Hi Linda! Please report all contacts from scammers to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. PCH does partner with the Federal Trade Commission and we send all scam reports to them so please make sure you let us know anytime a scammer contacts you. Remember, the real PCH never notifies major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask winners to pay to claim their prize. You can see more Safety Tips here: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Stay safe!

  4. I received a message from P.C.H to contact a Mr. Andrew Goldberg from P.C.H that I was grand prize winner. On 10/19/2022 at 2:17 P.M. Claim number $$$$$ phone number ($$$) $$$-$$$$. I returned his call and left a message with the claim number. And it happen to be our $$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ day when we got the call. Today I called again to find out if this was true about the prize, left him a message, and he called me back, He asked me a few question, and he mention that there was a form that I was suppose to fill out and scan to send back to him. My husband thought this is a scam, and that I should hang up, and not continue filling out the form to send to Mr. Andrew Goldberg. He gave me another number today over the phone $$$$$$ P.C.H . I was hoping that this was true.

    1. Hi Mary! That is not the real PCH calling you; it’s a scammer that’s 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. If you haven’t already done so, please 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://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim!

    1. Hi Robert! That is definitely a scammer who contacted you! PCH will never send friend requests, private messages, or winner notifications via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc; we also never ask for money to claim a prize. Do not give this person any personal information and certainly do not send them any money!! Instead, report them to PCH by completing a Scam Incident Report. Here’s how: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. Check out this FAQ for info on how to stop scammers from contacting you on Facebook: http://bit.ly/StopFBScammers. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim!

  5. They even had someone call me and tell me that they are with the FBI. Fake , fake and fake. I called and actually spoke with the person they told they where. The caller was representing the FBI and used their name and a fake badge number. They are not. Now that is a federal offense. Michael Green, FBI agent. He never supplied a badge number and Sgt Neville, Badge number 775B. They even had someone pretend they are an attorney and all three have threatened me. Because they won’t stop calling and have told, John Edwards (Fake) Michael Collins who also answer to Peter (Fake). These folks even sent me $65,000 in fraudulent checks from an elderly man in Mass. I have told them to leave me alone but now they are deep do do’s. They think that threatening is going to stop me they are wrong.

    1. Hi Michelle! Please report all contacts from scammers to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. PCH does partner with the Federal Trade Commission and we send all scam reports to them so please make sure you let us know anytime a scammer contacts you. Remember, the real PCH never notifies major prize winners via phone, standard mail, email, or social media, and we never ask winners to pay to claim their prize. You can see more Safety Tips here: https://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim.

  6. To whom it concern my son I want to tell him that he’s being scammed and don’t know how I go about doing it when he might think I’m just trying to put a damper on his wings I always said if you got to spend money to get money it’s a scam to do cause him every day to make contact with him on giving him to like the fifth of next month to have $500 up front money how can I let my son know that it’s a scam

    1. Hi Jaime! That is not the real PCH calling you; it’s a scammer that’s 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. If you haven’t already done so, please 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://bit.ly/FraudProtection2. Please be careful everyone; don’t become a scammer’s victim!