Have you heard from Deco Worldwide Sweepstakes or American Sweepstakes Lottery or from Alliance Consult Services? If not, good! They have one thing in common – all of them are scams. These are names some fraudsters used to cheat people of their money.
Canadian Sweepstakes scams are run by individuals based in Canada. They send emails giving welcome news to its recipients that they have won the top prize (or sometimes, as we shall see, a lower prize) at a sweepstake. The sweepstakes can be claimed to have such illustrious sponsors as Microsoft, the Readers’ Digest, Publishers’ Clearing House or the choicest Fortune 500 companies.
But there’s a hitch: The recipients of the mail will have to pay a few thousands to cover some expenses. This could be a fee for covering administrative expenses or as an advance tax that has to be paid against the prize. They would be asked to send a check for the said amount to an address in Canada (usually to a woman – it increases credibility, you see).
Some people send the check. And why not? After all, who would not pay a few thousands for the millions that is just within grasp?
But more often than not, it does not end here. If the victim sends a check the first time around, they are asked to send some more on one pretext or the other.
For those who won a second or fourth prize, it is claimed that their winnings have been upgraded. Apparently, the candidature of the winner did not stand good on close scrutiny. So he was stripped and the victim, as a result has more prize money for the taking. Of course, the taxes/administrative fees that has to be paid would increase proportionately and has to be shelled out by him/her.
This can go on for the better part of a year through a series of to-and-fro messages until the victim loses patience and decides to ask around. This is when the scam is discovered.
It is easy to see why senior citizens are specifically targeted for the scam. Usually they live alone or without much contact with the outside world. This gives the tricksters ample time to act out their scheme before they are found out.
A senior citizen in Baltimore has been reported to be the latest victim of this fraud.
Pity. It is a big, bad world out there.