Don't be a victim of sweepstakes scam!

When you hear from a stranger via the phone or email, "Congratulations, you're a winner," beware! The odds are high that you are not.

The latest scam being run on local residents includes a caller who tells the "mark" that he or she has won a substatial amount of money and/or a new car. The caller states the contest is run from a location in Switzerland or another country outside of the USA, and that money is required in order to pay tarriff or other fees in order to release the prize from the foreign country. Sometimes the scammer will ask the person to send money, either to an address in the foreign country, or, they will suggest the money be sent to "their affiliate," often out of state. The affiliate, often sited as being from Las Vegas, is bogus. Recent calls have also included claims that the caller is somehow connected to certain corporations or celebrities. Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates and others have been mentioned in these calls. Of course, ALL calls of this nature are simply coming from a "boiler room" which is a temporary call center that has nothing to do with the company or celebrity mentioned. As soon as a sufficient number of consumers have agreed to send money to the "affiliate" address, the center is usually broken down and a new location and phone numbers are set up in order to scam additional consumers.

Remember, you cannot hit the jackpot in a contest you didn't enter, and in this case, the contest is fake. Often times the winning notice is accompanied by a check or promises to send a bigger check if you wire money to cover "processing fees" for the pay-out. If you wire the money, you won't see a prize, and you won't recover your funds. Also beware that bogus sweepstakes offers are often promoted with a name that sounds like the familiar legitimate sweepstakes offers.

"People should ignore emails or telemarketing calls alerting them that they are lottery winners. More often than not, if they respond, they will end up losing a lot and not winning a thing," said Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

To avoid becoming a victim of a sweepstakes scam, the Attorney General offers the following tips:
• Don't try to collect winnings from a lottery that you don't remember entering.
• Don't give out your personal bank account information to people you don't know and don't trust.
• Don't pay any money up front, especially to claim something you won. Once you send in money, it's unlikely you will see it ever again.
• Don't read emails or open attachments on emails from people you don't know or don't trust.
• Don't let your hopes get in the way of your good judgment-if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Scam artists are always trying to design new ways to defraud people out of their hard-earned money.

Recent reports also indicate that these scam artists have been calling Medicare beneficiaries asking for personal information, including bank account information and Social Security numbers. Other callers offer updated or replacement Medicare cards for a fee. A good rule of thumb to remember is: your bank, financial institution, credit card company, Medicare representative, etc. will never ask for sensitive personal information by phone or e-mail. A legitimate sweepstakes or contest will never ask you for this information or ask you to send them money. If they do, they are probably running a scam-don't do it!

The key to these calls is: Don't do it! Don't give out any information unless you know for certain who you are dealing with. If in doubt, call a trusted friend or releative for advice before cooperating with anyone offering any type of service including sweepstakes. If you are still in doubt about the validity and legitimacy of a call, letter or e-mail you receive, you may call one of the following numbers to speak to a representative who will explain the latest scams and how to avoid being "ripped off." These helpful folks will not ask you to do anything or infringe on your privacy, but will simply tell you whether the call or mail you received is a scam or not. Call the Attorney General's hotline at 800-482-8982, or WRAA at 800-320-5800.  

A special note for internet users:

Phishing is a term used to describe the type of scam in which people are asked to give enough personal and financial information to allow the scammers to get into their bank accounts. Scammers are literally "fishing" for information, and they can be very tricky and very convincing when twisting the issue in order to get you to tell them what they want to know! E-mails will ask the consumer to visit an alternate site and enter sensitive personal financial information. Internet users should also be aware that online sweepstakes entries have been compromised, or "hacked" in recent months and often will re-direct you away from legitimate offers to a site which has been set up by the hackers to look exactly like the real thing, but it gets the information you give it and in turn sends it to the scammer, who will then gain access to your bank account or other valuables.

Legitimate websites will use an "EV Certificate." What this means is, the website owner has a security measure attached to the site, when you click buttons on EV Certified sites and you are re-directed to another page which actually belongs to the real site, the CV Certificate will turn your search bar green. Websites which use a Certification Authority, such as VeriSign, Comodo, and GoDaddy will display a tiny padlock. To check the site's certificate, click on this padlock and it will give you information on the Certification Authority (CA) in use by the website. It also displays the real owner of the site. If the CA information doesn't look right-don't do it! If your browser search bar turns pink, the CA has expired or has something fishy (phishy) about it-don't do it! The site could include an internet virus, spyware or adware which can allow access to information you don't want others to see.

Getting popup advertising? Adware monitors marketing sites you visit and re-directs your computer to sites which sell similar items. Does your computer suddenly slow down or lock up? Some spyware sites are connected to "shareware" which leaches onto your system when you log onto the web (usually your computer will run slower, especially during the few moments it takes for the spyware to access your system), and, scammers can actually trace your keystrokes and obtain your passwords and/or account numbers if you do business online. Not only that, but some of these hacker programs are sophisticated enough that they can "tell" your computer to go to a website and download more of their spyware-all without you even being aware it's happening. A good firewall, anti-adware/spyware, anti-virus program is a must to avoid these hazards.