The call says you have won $250,000. The letter looks official, the voice sounds cheerful, and the only thing standing between you and the prize is a small fee for taxes or processing. The fee is the whole scam.
I know how good that moment feels. It is the dream calling - money you did not have to work for, arriving when you least expect it. And that dream is exactly what the people on the other end are selling.
This month, federal judges sentenced two men in a sweepstakes scheme that took at least a million dollars from older Americans. Owen Byfield got 24 months in prison and was ordered to pay back $1.7 million. Days later, his co-defendant Patrick Dallas got the same. The scheme wore the most trusted name in sweepstakes: Publishers Clearing House. Victims were told they had won millions - then told to send money for taxes and fees before they could collect.
The losses behind those two sentences are bigger. Americans reported losing $145 million to prize, sweepstakes, and lottery scams in 2024 - $18 million more than the year before, according to Federal Trade Commission data. And that is only what people reported.
This is the newest costume in our scam series. The first article covered the fake bank call, the second covered the recovery call that comes after a scam, the third covered the gold bar scam, the fourth covered the paid-search bill, and the fifth covered the package that shows up at your door. This one is different from all of them: it starts with good news.
Here is how the script runs, the one question that ends it, and what to do if the call already came.
The Script, Step by Step
Step one: the win
It can be a phone call, a letter, an email, or a pop-up on your computer. The message is always the same: congratulations, you have won.
The prize varies. $250,000. $1 million. A car. Or the famous one - “$5,000 a week for life” from Publishers Clearing House. The caller gives you a claim number - the clever part. It makes the win feel tracked and official, like your prize is sitting in a room with your name on it.
Sometimes there is a hook of truth. Maybe you entered a sweepstakes once, at a fair or by mail. Maybe your name came from a list you never signed up for. It does not matter. They do not need you to have entered. They need you to believe you might have.
Step two: the fee
Here is where the win turns. You have won, they say - but before the prize is released, there are taxes to pay. Or processing fees. Or insurance. Or delivery. The fee is always a few hundred dollars, always urgent - “the prize is only held for 24 hours” - and always payable in a way that is hard to get back.
Gift cards are the favorite. Wire transfers, payment apps, cryptocurrency, and cash in the mail all get used. In August, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Florida put out a fraud alert about exactly this: callers claiming big prizes while demanding gift cards, wires, crypto, or cash. The message was plain: real sweepstakes are free and never require payment to claim a prize.
Nobody in the history of this scam has ever collected a prize. The fee is the scam.
Step three: the next fee
Pay the first fee, and there is always a second.
“Your check was held up at customs - send $400 more.” “The attorney needs his fee before the transfer.” “One more tax, and it is done.” Each amount is small enough to seem worth it, so people pay over and over, chasing a prize that was never real.
The federal cases this summer show how the money moves. In June, prosecutors in Connecticut charged six people in a Publishers Clearing House-style scheme that had mostly elderly victims mailing checks, cash, and money orders for “taxes and fees.” In August, Florida prosecutors announced the arrests of three people in a mail scheme that had elderly victims mailing cashier’s checks and cash to post office boxes. The prize does not exist. The post office box is real, and that is where the money went.
Step four: the real rules
Every legitimate sweepstakes follows three rules, and none involve you sending money.
Rule one: sweepstakes are free to enter and free to claim. That is not a courtesy - it is the law. A contest cannot make you buy something to enter, and a real prize is never held for a fee.
Rule two: taxes are paid to the government, not through a middleman. If you win a big prize, taxes are settled between you and the tax agency - or the lottery withholds them from the prize before you ever see it. You are never asked to wire “tax” money to a stranger. That is not how taxes work.
Rule three: Publishers Clearing House does not call and does not collect fees. The AARP warns that PCH impersonation is one of the most common versions of this scam. The real PCH never charges anyone anything to collect a prize. If someone says they are from PCH and asks for money, they are not from PCH.
Why It Works So Well
The sweepstakes scam is the friendliest scam in the series, and that is why it works.
Every other story in this series uses fear - the panic of the fake bank call, the desperation of the recovery call. Fear makes people act fast, and acting fast is what the scam needs.
This one uses hope - a slower, stronger engine - and it uses a memory. Many of the people targeted grew up with mail-in sweepstakes and magazine contests. Publishers Clearing House is a name from the kitchen table - the envelope you opened just in case. The scammers borrow that trust. They are not selling you a stranger’s lie. They are selling a familiar dream with a stranger’s voice.
The other engine is the sunk cost. Once someone has paid one fee, the choice feels like “pay another fee or lose everything I already paid.” It is not a real choice, but it feels like one, so people keep paying. The shame is also why so many never report it. The FTC’s numbers only count the people who told someone.
The targeting is deliberate. The victims in the federal cases this summer were mostly elderly - people living alone, people with savings, people who answer the phone when it rings.
The One-Question Test
This is the series test in its prize form. Would a real prize require me to pay to collect it? The answer is always no. There is no legitimate version where the answer is yes.
The payment method is the second tell. Real institutions bill you. They do not ask for gift cards, wire transfers, payment app transfers, cryptocurrency, or cash in the mail. If the “prize company” wants any of those, the call is over.
What to Do at Each Step
If the call comes: hang up. Do not press 1 to “opt out” or “verify” your name and address. Every second on the line is a second the caller is working on you.
If the letter comes: do not call the number on it. The letter can look official - logos, claim numbers, department names. The number on it routes you straight back to the scammers. To check whether a real company sent it, look up the company’s published number and call that.
If the email comes: do not click anything. No attachments, no “claim your prize” buttons. Delete it, and remember the FTC’s rule: real prizes are free to claim, and no legitimate organization asks for fees up front.
Never pay a fee to collect a prize. Not taxes, not processing, not insurance, not “refundable deposits.” There is no fee a real prize requires. The AARP’s sweepstakes scam guide is worth bookmarking - it lists every version of the win, from the fake check to the “verification” fee.
If you entered a sweepstakes recently, it does not change the test. You can enter a hundred real contests and still get a fake win call. The test only asks one question: are they asking for money?
If It Has Already Happened
If you already sent money, here is what actually helps, in order.
Call your bank or the company on the back of your card, today. Tell them you paid a scam and want to dispute the charges. Gift card codes are gone the moment you read them out, so recovery is harder - but tell them anyway, and tell the store where you bought the cards if you have receipts.
Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. It will not get your money back on its own, and I am not going to pretend it will. But the FTC’s warnings started with reports like yours, and the reports are how the next pattern gets caught.
Do not answer the follow-up call. The second article in this series covers the call that comes after a scam - someone promising to recover your money for a fee. It is the same people wearing a different face. Anyone who offers to get your money back for a fee is running the next scam on the list.
Tell one person you trust. The secrecy is what the follow-up scams depend on; the person who knows can stop the next call from landing.
And remember this, because it matters: this is not your fault. These are professional operations with scripts, fake documents, and years of practice. The people who fell for them are not gullible. They are human, and the scammers are very good at what they do.
The One Conversation
If this is your parent or grandparent, have the same short conversation from the rest of this series, with the prize version added:
“If anyone ever calls or writes saying you won a prize and need to pay a fee to collect it, that is a scam. Real prizes are free. If you hear that call, tell me about it before you send anyone anything.”
That is the whole conversation. No lecture, no test. Just the rule and the offer - a step that is not shameful.
What to Do Now
Take the next step today, whichever one fits:
- Tell your household the rule today: “If there is a fee, it is not a win.”
- If you get prize calls often, let the machine catch them.
- Bookmark ReportFraud.ftc.gov so the next weird call has somewhere to go.
- If someone you love has been paying fees on a “prize,” have the conversation this week.
Remember the one question. Would a real prize require me to pay to collect it? The answer is always no.
A prize that asks you to pay is not a win. It is a bill with a bow on it.
This is the seventh article in the Scam Awareness series. More coming - if there is a scam you keep hearing about and want explained, let me know and I will write it up.
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