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In November 2022, we received an email from a reader who reported being targeted by a scam. Scammers said the person had won the Mega Millions lottery jackpot. The scammers provided a claim check number and told the victim to go to a local Dollar General store. The victim was asked to wire $475, perhaps through Western Union, in order to claim the fake prize. Thankfully, the person did not appear to have sent any money to the scammers. To be clear, Mega Millions published on its own official website that there is never a fee to claim a real lottery prize. If someone is claiming to be with Mega Millions and asks for money in order to receive winnings, then it's a scam. We found several examples of this scam being documented by consumers on Facebook. One user posted about being asked by scammers for an insurance deposit. Many of the posts we reviewed indicated that scammers were referring to their scam as the Mega Millions Sweepstakes. We strongly advise that readers do not click on suspicious links or call suspicious phone numbers. Scammers are known for creating websites that might look like an official company page. They might also impersonate customer service departments over the phone for whatever company they're claiming to be affiliated with. However, it's all simply part of the scam. Regarding these kinds of sweepstakes scams, the U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) advised the following on its website: The BBB also published tips on how to tell fake sweepstakes and lottery offers from real ones: Additionally, the BBB website provided information for people to report the scammers. We previously reported about a similar scam on the subject of the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes.
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