My father lost more than $74,000 after responding to hundreds of letters in the mail. Investigators spent more than a month looking into this case. My dad took the bait after receiving hundreds of luring letters that offered the promise of prizes.
“They made a very good story. You just thought, well maybe there is something to this. They were saying, ‘You’ve won $1-million, or you’ve won $1.5-million,’ or whatever,”
The father made no mention to the sweepstakes to his son. His son said he made the startling discover while helping his dad move. Each contest said in order to collect the money you have to pay a registration fee. So the dad did. He mailed hundreds of checks to mysterious companies – companies that were identified only by initials.
His dad was receiving the letters by the dozen every day and answered nearly every one, spending more than $74,000. “He was writing four to five check books per month. “It was really incredibly hard to find out who was behind this, because they do everything possible to conceal their identity.
That’s when he called the investigators. After digging through corporate reports, we found all of the sweepstakes companies were linked to the same two men. The BBB handles cases similar to this everyday. They say while the front of the letter looks like it’s for a sweepstakes, there is a fine print paragraph on the back that explains you’re really paying for a list of sweepstakes and contests you can enter.
There are companies out there that are willing to take advantage of people. Be careful out there.
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