Don’t Be Fooled By PCH Scammers!
In today’s day and age, we all love to interact with friends and family on social media. It’s the way we get to share the news, both good and bad, and keep up with the latest trends, cute kitten and puppy videos, and whatever else might be going viral that day! As fun and easy as it is, we all need to be extra vigilant about those who might want to do us harm by pretending to be someone they’re not and asking for money or for personal information that we should NEVER give out to strangers on the Internet.
Today’s blog is an important reminder to all of you loyal fans and blog readers to be on the lookout for PCH Scammers who may be lurking out there! They could be just waiting for the chance to ask you to give up some of your personal information and hard-earned money under totally false pretenses.
1.Prize Patrol Members Do NOT Send Friend Requests
This one seems to be a favorite with those PCH scammers. They’ll send you a friend request on Facebook pretending to be someone from the Prize Patrol, like Danielle Lam or Dave Sayer. Don’t be fooled! Prize Patrol members will NEVER send you friend requests! These scammers can also make their Facebook pages look very authentic, and it can be very tricky to tell the difference. Never fall for it! If something tells you that it’s not right, because of poor spelling and grammar for instance, then trust your instincts! In fact, always make sure you’re on the real PCH Fan Page on Facebook. You’ll notice the blue check mark in the top left-hand corner letting you know it’s verified.
2. You Never Have To Pay To Claim A PCH Prize
Sad but true, there are unscrupulous individuals who impersonate the “real” PCH and contact fans and friends like you – often asking their victims to send some sort of payment or fee to claim a fake PCH “prize” (which, by the way, is something the real PCH would never, ever do). At Publishers Clearing House the winning is always free! 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! Some scammers impersonating PCH have asked their victims to wire them money or send a pre-paid Green Dot Money Card before their prize can be awarded. That would NEVER happen at PCH.
3. Winners Are Not Notified Through Facebook
We would never alert our winner in advance on social media like Facebook. That would ruin the surprise! PCH prides itself on the way we carefully plan our big winning moments. The reason our lucky winners look so surprised is because THEY REALY ARE! Be on the lookout for any fake winning messages on Facebook and be sure you report it to us right away. We make it easy with our online PCH Scam Incident Report and strongly encourage you to fill one out if you think you are being scammed. It’s fast and super-easy!
Staying safe is easy once you know the ways to spot PCH scammers! I hope that you found today’s blog helpful and that you’ll stay on the lookout for these sweepstakes scammers and report anything to us that you see out there that seems suspicious!
Jane M.
PCH Creative
