Sweepstakes Scams and the Elderly

Most junk mail is no more than just a pain in the neck and environmentally unfriendly. But, for people that are trusting and vulnerable, it can become more than that. Fraudulent sweepstakes and contests via the mail as well as over the phone rob the elderly of huge amounts of money every year.

There are many legitimate sweepstakes and contests (Publisher’s Clearinghouse and Reader’s Digest are two) and the laws that they must abide by have been strengthened over the past several years. Unfortunately, there are many other types of sweepstakes that use strong tactics to entice money out of people. The elderly are a prime target because not only are they vulnerable, when they realize what’s happened, they’re too embarrassed to report the crime.

Here are some rules of the road:

It’s illegal for a company to require you to pay a fee or buy something to enter a contest or sweepstakes.

If you really do win something, taxes will be deducted from your winnings or you pay them directly to the government. If they tell you to mail the taxes to them and then they will send your check, it’s a fake and they will just keep your money.

No legitimate sweepstakes company will ask you for your credit card number. Do not give this information to a caller telling you that you’ve won a contest.

Some of these fraudulent companies purposely have names that are misleadingly similar to the legitimate ones.

Be careful of those very official looking envelopes. Con artists know that using words like ‘urgent’ or putting official types of seals on the envelope make the recipient more likely to believe the contents.

If the postage on the envelope is bulk postage, a lot of people got the same mailing telling them they are winners. Don’t believe it.

If you are at an elderly person’s home and you see an extraordinary number of sweepstakes mailings, start to ask questions. Once someone responds to one of these fraudulent contests, their names go out on the mailing lists and they receive more and more mailings.

Again, if you’re at an elderly person’s home and you see a large number of magazines, ask questions why. They may be subscribing to magazines thinking it will increase the chances of their winning.

You will never be asked to wire money to a legitimate sweepstakes company.

Keep telling yourself – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.