Publisher’s Clearing House Scam Hits Franklin County Victims

The Franklin County Sheriff’s office is warning of another scam in which a caller tells the victim they’ve won the Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes.

Franklin County Sheriff Stevie Thomas said there have been a number of victims in recent days.

“Beware of callers saying they’re from Publisher’s Clearing House,” Thomas said. “We’ve received a number of calls from citizens in Franklin County. This is a scam.”

The way the scam works, according to the Publisher’s Clearing House Web site, is a person will receive either a phone call, email, or  a fraudulent check in the mail supposedly from the Sweepstakes company and they are told to call a number.

When the victim calls that number, they are told that in order to receive their cash prize, they must send a “processing fee.”  That fee is often in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. The victim is told to put that processing fee on a green dot card then call the scammer back with the access code.

The victim is taken yet again when they call the number they were given. It turns out to be an international call.

“They’re giving you a phone number that is not toll-free,” Thomas said. “It’s an international call and is very expensive. That call will be charged to your phone bill.”

Thomas advises not to give any information or personal information to anyone over the phone that you do not know.

Publisher’s Clearing House officials say their prizes are always free.

Company officials say if you believe you have been the victim of a fraudulent contact using the name of PublishersClearing House, they want to know about it.

They ask that you call Publisher’s Clearing House toll-free to report it at 1-800-392-4190.

And if you receive a suspicious email fraudulently claiming to be from PCH, PCHLotto or PCHSearch&Win, forward it to the Publishers Clearing House scam reporting mailbox, [email protected].