By Bonita Wilborn
Recently I received a call on my cell phone. When I looked at the screen to see who I could expect on the other end of the line, it simply said, “No Caller ID.” THAT WAS RED FLAG #1. Now, honesty compels me to say that anytime I receive such a call I am skeptical and usually don’t answer the call. But I use my cell phone for business as well as personal use, so for some reason I decided that I would answer it this time. After all, it could be a business caller that just didn’t want their number publically available.
So, I answered the call knowing that I could hang up at anytime if the caller was not someone that I chose to continue a conversation with. The caller said, “My name is James Russell. I am a claims support auditor with Publishers Clearing House.” RED FLAT #2 – even though he gave a name that sounded like an American name, he had a distinctively foreign accent.
I reasoned that scammers usually don’t tell you a name, but why wouldn’t the phone number he was calling from show up, if this was a legitimate call? So I decided to remain on the call with this man just to see what this man would say. He asked if I was familiar with Publishers Clearing House. I knew that often scammers ask questions to record your voice saying the word “yes”, so rather than saying that I said, “I am.” So he kept talking.
He said, “I want to congratulate you for being our grand prize winner. As the winner you will receive $850,000, plus $7,000 a week for the rest of your life, plus a 2023 G Class Mercedes Benz, plus 36 months insurance at no cost to you, and one year of free gas.” RED FLAG #3 – While I have entered the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes many times in the past, I haven’t entered that sweepstake in at least a decade, maybe more.
He proceeded with, “I’m going to stay on the line with you while you get a paper and something to write with because I will give you some numbers that you must have readily available when the Alabama state representatives for Publishers Clearing House arrive at your door to present your prizes.” He continued, “While you’re getting that let me ask if you want the presentation of your prizes to be private or public where all of the local media outlets would there to record it?”
Since I work for a local media outlet, I decided that I would keep that bit of information to myself and so I answered, “Private.”
As is happened, was sitting at my desk at work so I had a pen and paper close at hand. I waited a few seconds and said, “I’m ready.” Then he gave me what he called a “package number”. It was a series of twelve numbers followed by the letters PCH for Publishers Clearing House. He also gave me another number to write down which he called a “winnings and claim” number. He continued by telling me my winnings had been made known to the IRS as is a requirement by law and that when I receive my prizes the taxes will have already been paid from my winnings and the $850,000 is the remainder of the prize. He said, “You won’t owe any other federal taxes on this prize package.”
After keeping me on the phone for several minutes, asking a plethora of questions that I was very careful about answering he said, “I need to send you over to our account department. So please remain on the line because if this call is ended you won’t have another opportunity to receive your prizes.”
In a couple of seconds a male voice came on the line. This time the man said, “My name is Samuel Bishop.” RED FLAG #4 – Although he gave me a different name, the voice sounded the same as the one I had just been listening to, who said his name was James Russell.
This is about the time RED FLAT #5, 6, and 7 were revealed. Samuel Bishop explained that although the federal taxes had been taken care of, there was an issue with the state of Alabama, which requires that a registration fee of $1,550 must be paid prior to the prizes being presented to me.
After being on the phone with this man for several more minutes, he gave me a name and address of a female in Hampton, Virginia and wanted me to get a certified cashier’s check for $1550 from my bank and sent to this woman via Bank of America. He acted as if the prize patrol were waiting nearby and would be at my door as soon as I returned from the bank.
It was time for me to get back to work, and I had plenty of incriminating information from the call, so I hung up and called the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office to report the scam.
Even though I had been told that if the call ended I wouldn’t have another chance to claim my prizes, I continued to receive calls from the “No Caller ID” number for the remainder of that day and even into the next day. There were a total of 20 more calls after that original call.
Since there was no caller ID, I didn’t know of any way to block the caller, so I just ignored the calls when they came in. Finally after the second call the following day I had had enough. I answered to hear, “Mrs. Wilborn, this is Samuel Bishop…” So I interrupted him and said, “I don’t believe this is legitimate, I have called the Sheriff’s office to report this, and y’all need to stop calling me!” I hung up the phone and haven’t received any other calls from either James or Samuel.
The moral of this story is…no matter how “real” the caller might sound, no matter how much information they already have about you, no matter how much you would love to receive all the prizes they say that you have already won, DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION! DO NOT SEND ANYONE MONEY TO RECEIVE A PRIZE! And if you receive a call like I described above, report it to your local Sheriff’s Office, and tell the caller you are going to do so.
Publishers Clearing House is a real company that actually awards prizes to its winners, but you have to enter to win.