An Old Scam And An Older (94) Rocky Hill Man

Today’s Bottom Line column

AN ACTUAL WINNER: John Wyllie, from White City, Ore., won $5,000 a month for life in August from Publishers Clearing House. (MCT)

The oldest scams never die. They just look for older victims.
The Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes has been co-opted so frequently by con artists that the real Publishers Clearing House has a “scam busters” service to warn consumers.

Does anyone still fall for a Publishers Clearing House scam? A 76-year-old woman in Kenosha, Wis., acknowledged last month that, yes, she fell for it after receiving a letter in June informing her she had won $2.7 million in the PCH sweepstakes. She was asked to call a claim agent, Charles Thompson, who told her the payment would be processed by “Nationwide Trust” after she first sent out two checks to someone in Georgia.
She mailed the checks, for $7,000 and $33,750, before getting suspicious and calling the real PCH in Port Washington, N.Y. You’ve been scammed, she was told. By then, it was too late to stop payment on the checks.
Later in August a similar letter from “Nationwide Trust” of Vancouver arrived in Roger Smith’s mailbox in Rocky Hill with the same notification of $2.7 million in winnings from a North American lottery and “provincial sweepstakes.” Call Nationwide Trust branch-office claim agent Charles Thompson, the letter said, within five days for your method of payment.

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