Lottery/sweepstakes scam warning from Sergeant Jillian Cabana, Westport Police Detective Bureau

Lottery/Sweepstakes scams– Lottery/sweepstakes scams commonly involve emails or
phone calls to victims advising them that they have won the lottery or a sweepstakes.
The caller or mailer tells the victim that they will receive their prize money only after
first paying the taxes and processing fees up front. The suspects request payment for the
taxes by either a wire transfer or via Green Dot card (or similar prepaid credit card). The
suspect will instruct the “winner” to either wire money into a specific account or to go
and purchase a Green Dot card in a specific denomination and then provide them with the
PIN number off of the card. The caller may even say that the sweepstakes officials are
in town to deliver the winning sweepstakes check. Reverse look-ups on the area codes
of the callers have shown out-of-country area codes or cell phone providers. Many times
the locations the processing/tax money has been sent have been out-of-country addresses.
Tell the caller you are not interested and hang up.