Sweepstakes & Lottery Scams

A caller, letter, or email tells you that you won a Publishers Clearing House prize, a foreign lottery, a Mega Millions jackpot, or a sweepstakes — and you only need to “pay the taxes upfront” to collect your winnings. There are no winnings. The taxes are the scam. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service prosecutes these as wire and mail fraud.

Phone · Mail · Email Statewide Updated May 4, 2026

How This Scam Works

The One Rule That Defeats Every Lottery Scam

You cannot win a contest you did not enter. You cannot win a foreign lottery you did not buy a ticket for. Real prize organizations never charge you to receive a prize. Those three sentences are a complete defense against this entire scam category.

Scammers contact older adults by phone, mail, or email claiming they have won a major prize: Publishers Clearing House, Mega Millions, the Spanish El Gordo lottery, the Canadian lottery, a Reader’s Digest sweepstakes, or a Walmart gift card drawing. The amount is always large — $1 million, $5 million, $25,000 — large enough to feel life-changing.

To collect, they say, you must first pay “processing fees,” “insurance,” “delivery taxes,” “customs fees,” or “IRS withholding.” The amounts start small — $500, $1,200 — but grow. Every time you pay, there is one more fee before they can release the money. Some victims pay tens of thousands of dollars across months before they realize there is no prize.

Real lotteries and sweepstakes deduct taxes from winnings — they do not ask winners to pay taxes upfront. Real Publishers Clearing House notifies winners in person, never by phone or mail demanding payment. Real prizes never require gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency.

What They Actually Say

The Script — Word For Word

“Congratulations! You have been selected as the grand prize winner of the Publishers Clearing House $5 million sweepstakes. To release your winnings, we need you to pay the federal processing fee of $1,200 by Western Union money transfer. Once we receive payment, our representatives will hand-deliver your check within 24 hours. Please do not share this news with anyone — we want to surprise you on camera!” Documented script · FTC Consumer Sentinel Network · 2026

A Real Story

Why Older Adults Are Targeted

Documented by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland · 2025

Federal authorities prosecuted a scheme that defrauded elderly victims through targeted mailing lists.

In June 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland detailed cases involving sweepstakes schemes that defrauded elderly victims through purchased mailing lists, resulting in guilty pleas. Scammers buy lists of older Americans who have responded to sweepstakes mailings before — making them targets for repeated, escalating fraud. AARP has documented victims paying $50,000 or more across years before realizing the prize was never real.

What To Do · What To Never Do

If You Get This Notice

✓ Do This

Throw it out. Hang up. Delete the email.
Ask yourself: did I actually enter this contest? If you cannot remember entering, you did not win.
Tell a family member. Sweepstakes scammers always tell victims to keep it secret. That alone is the giveaway.
If you have already paid, call your bank immediately and report the scam at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Report mail-based scams to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455.

✕ Never Do This

Never pay any “fee,” “tax,” “insurance,” “processing charge,” or “customs fee” to claim a prize. Real prizes never require upfront payment.
Never wire money, send gift cards, or use cryptocurrency to claim winnings.
Never give out your bank account, Social Security number, or Medicare number to claim a prize.
Never assume a letter is real because it has an official-looking seal, signature, or check enclosed.
Never deposit “winnings checks” sent in the mail. They are fake. The bank will reverse the deposit and you will owe the money.

🚩 The Six Red Flags Of A Sweepstakes Scam

You “won” a contest you do not remember entering.
You must pay any fee, tax, or charge to receive winnings.
The notification asks you to keep it secret or “not tell anyone yet.”
The amount is very large — millions of dollars.
You receive a check in the mail that you are told to deposit, then wire part of it back.
The notification originates from a foreign country (Spain, Canada, Jamaica, Nigeria, the UK).

Got a “you won” notice? Call us before you respond:

(855) 301-4220

A real person answers. Free for every Marylander.

After You Hang Up