A couple of scams have hit Cherokee County over the past several days.

First up, the dreaded Publishers Clearinghouse con – where the scammer calls, claims to be from an organization everyone knows and loves (even though they are NOT actually with that legitimate company) tells the target they’ve won all sorts of wonderful valuable prizes including cars trips and cash – and they’ll bring them to their front door later today – HOWEVER they must first pay a “fee” before collecting those “superwonderfulhowluckycanyoube” prizes. 

Okay, stop right there.  We’ve gone over this again and again and again.  It’s a scam. 

With Publishers Clearinghouse they don’t call first – they just show up with that GREAT BIG CHECK we’ve all seen on TV.  And you – NEVER, EVER – have to pay anything to collect your prizes from Publishers Clearinghouse.  It says so right there on their website – Hey, we here at WEIS Radio have even called the company personally – and guess what – they said “No, if anybody tries to tell you, that you have to pay something up front to get your prizes, they’re lyin’!”.  One caller reporting the scam to us said that he started preaching to the caller about how dishonest they were and they hung up immediately, so he suggested preaching to them – that should be fun.  Have at it.

This next one is fairly new to this area, and is much more cruel – specifically targeting older adults.  The scammer calls an elderly person claiming to be a grandchild or another relative in trouble saying anything from they’ve been in a car accident and need money for repairs –  to they’ve been arrested and need bail money right away – they then ask for a credit card or bank account number.

Their goal is to get the victim to panic and act before they think. 

In some cases, a second scammer will come on the line pretending to be a police officer, and they will “confirm” the first person’s story.  Beware, there are MANY variations on this latest scam.

As always – if something sounds odd – stop.  Think about it – ask questions.  Hang up – you can get the name of the town and call the police department there and confirm or BUST any story.

Scammers have a million stories and a million different approaches and the best thing to do is the easiest thing to do.  Hang up.