Greetings, fans and friends!
Today is Saturday, which means it’s time for the weekly “Danielle’s Desk” video on PCH’s Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter pages – where Danielle of the PCH Prize Patrol answers questions from our fans.
Today’s question on Danielle’s Desk is: I Was Asked to Pay a Fee to Claim My Prize. Was This PCH? Here’s Danielle with the answer:
That’s a really good question … and just to make sure all of our fans and friends know the answer, here are some of the key points that Danielle emphasizes in this video:
• The answer to the question I Was Asked to Pay a Fee to Claim My Prize. Was This PCH? Is NO.
• If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House or claiming to be a PCH Employee who says that you won a prize but in order to claim it, you must …
• buy a gift card or a money order
• pay a shipping, handling or delivery fee
• prepay taxes
• pay a deposit
• give a credit card number, bank information or your personal information
• call a toll-free number
… that person is NOT affiliated with the real Publishers Clearing House.
At PCH, you will NEVER be asked to pay a fee to claim your prize! The winning is always 100% FREE and 100% FUN!
Now that you know that you will never be asked to pay a fee to claim a Publishers Clearing House prize, I hope you’ll steer clear of imposters pretending to be from PCH. In fact, the smart thing to do is report it to us right away by completing our online PCH Scam Incident Report. It’s fast and easy, and not only will it help us, it will help other fans and friends who might be contacted by imposters claiming to be from PCH.
If you’ve been contacted by someone asking you to pay a fee to claim a PCH prize, let us know in the comments below.
Stay safe, fans and friends, and stay in it to win it!
Debbie K.
PCH Creative
I have been contacted saying I won and to send 500 to collect the money I told them I would pay cod when they deliver it to me.
Hello Robert, We certainly take the issue of scams and the illegal use of our name by scammers very seriously; that’s why we regularly educate our fans on what they can do to protect themselves. Unfortunately, scammers aren’t always easy to locate since many of them operate out of country. You can do your part to help us by reporting all scam contacts that you receive. Here’s how to report scammers on Facebook: http://bit.ly/ReportPCHScamFB and all other scam contacts can be reported to PCH via this link: http://bit.ly/Report-Scam-To-PCH. It’s important to remember that the real PCH will never send you a private message or friend request, and we’ll never ask for money to claim a prize. I encourage you to take a look at this blog article for some great tips on how you can stop scammers from contacting you on Facebook: http://bit.ly/StopFBScammers.
Dave Sayer just asked me for 200 to claim my win n I refused and he said he will cancel my winnings is this really what pch is about?
Hi Norris, 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!
I was just contacted by Danielle Lam and she said I just had to pay Federal Express to claim my winnings $300. Was I scammed.
Hi Joanna, That is a scammer pretending to be Danielle Lam – not the real Danielle Lam! The real Prize Patrol never sends friend requests, winner notifications or private messages on Facebook and you never need to pay to claim a prize. Do not give the scammer ANY of your personal information or any money! 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. Check out this blog to find out how to prevent them from contacting you: https://bit.ly/StopFBScammers. Stay safe!