Sweepstakes and lottery scams are on the rise. Crooks use email, mail, text messages, phone calls, and online pop-up windows and social media to lure you in. If these fraudsters say you must “pay first’ before you can collect your winnings that should be your first warning.Never, ever share your personal financial information with these people. If you do, scammers can make unauthorized transactions or sell your information to other scam operators. One of the most used scams are used over the phone by impersonating public figures such as the IRS, lottery officials, and the FBI and many others. These institutions will not call you by phone to collect any payment.
Many sweepstakes scams are run outside of the United States and may have a “fake” caller ID such as FBI, IRS or will have a Washington D.C. area code. If you are a victim of a scam, call your financial institution, local police, The FBI Crime Complaint Center and The Federal Trade Commission. If you receive a foreign lottery offer, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service should be notified as foreign lotteries are illegal in the U.S. De hart plumbing Heating and Cooling, serving Manhattan Kansas, Junction City Kansas, Wamego Kansas, Topeka Kansas, and some surrounding areas.
