Another way of scam is the prize scam. The prize scam is slightly related to the cheque cashing scam and money laundering scam. Their usual tactics is that someone will contact you from the company, telling you that you’ve won a prize. The bad news is that you really haven’t won a prize at all, but they are going to take away up to thousands of dollars from you using this type of scam.
Typically, the prize scam scenarios go like the following:
- A business or someone else will tell you that you’ve won a prize, congratulate you and act like it’s a really huge deal.
- Afterward, the business or person will tell you that to claim your prize; you will need to send them tax money for the prize. For example, they may ask a thousand dollars for $100,000 worth or prize money. Or they may even say that you’ve won a million dollars and ask for $10,000 worth of taxes. They’ll then tell you not to worry because you’ll be getting the money back, plus the actual cash prize.
- You’ll produce the money and send it to the business or person.
- They will collect the money and then disappear. The prize money will never arrive.
If a business or individual contacts you in this manner, it’s better to inform the local authorities than trust them because they’re more likely than not a part of the prize scam.
Prize scams aren’t the only abundant scams around; learn more about paid survey scams so you can protect yourself and keep your well-earned money safe.
Its a sad fact but the Internet is home to hundreds and thousands of scams, including paid survey scams. I have been involved with the o industry for over 5 years now and I have seen the paid survey scams and scammers get more creative and smarter to rip off the unsuspecting consumer.
