Lincoln County, Mo. – Recently, an 86-year-old local resident was contacted by mail, purportedly, by Publishers Clearing House.
The woman was told she was the winner of its well-known sweepstakes.
Over a series of weeks, through phone calls, the woman was told to pay taxes on the money, moving over $100,000 from her savings account to her personal account – which attracted the attention of her daughter, who contacted local law enforcement, sensing her mother might be the victim of a scam.
Assisting the Troy Police Department, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Triston Wilkinson met with the victim at a local store as she was preparing to send $16,000. As he spoke to her, he then got on the phone with the PCH “representative,” and it was finally at the point, she realized it was a scam.
“That was when we were able to get to the UPS Store and intercept the funds,” Wilkinson said. “We were able to call the U.S. Postal Police and the Attorney General’s Office.”
Unfortunately, she had been scammed out of $40,000 in the process. Wilkinson said scams like these are becoming more frequent in the area.
Wilkinson reported a second potential victim in Lincoln County was targeted through the PCH scam, this time by e-mail.
“This time, the scammers had all the right answers, and said he would show up in 24 hours with a new car,” he said.
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