Or at least my wife will be soon. We just had a message left on our answering machine telling her that she’s won $1 million in the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. She hasn’t called yet to get the complete details.
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Remember your friends. 
So confused. The message on our answering machine definitely said Publishers Clearing House, but at one time their website said
Now it says
I would have thought $1 million would still be major even though the top prizes are higher. Perhaps it is. Just reading their website, you wouldn’t realize they consider phone messages left by a person to be “in person”.
I have an amazing opportunity to share with you. You may not know this but you have been hand picked by a very high profile hedge fund manager to double your wealth in three months. These kinds of returns are only available to wealthy and distinguished individuals such as yourself. Upon creating an account, you will also be inducted as a premier member, which is an honor that not even Warren Buffet has. All you have to do is give me power of attorney over your estate to make it happen.
I got a phone call from someone who said that I won $5M AND $3000 every week for life AND a cruise AND some fancy car in the color of my choice!
I couldn’t believe my luck. Unfortunately, I deleted the message before I jotted down the phone number I was supposed to call back.
You may still be in luck. The number my wife was supposed to call back was 706-609-9212. Even if that isn’t the number that was trying to reach you, when you explain the situation to that person they may be able to help. Just don’t try to take my wife’s prize, please.
Why is my spidey scam-sense going haywire?
I got a text message from a number I did not recognize.
The text notification started:
“Congrats BG5150 you’re the winner of…”\
I almost just deleted it without opening it up. But it was a text message telling me I won $400 in the NCAA pool from a local brewery.
Pro tip: always read your texts even if you think they are scams…
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Was the local brewery trying to scam you or did you actually play in that pool?
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Generally they will need Social Security numbers so make sure to have those on hand when you call.
I once refused to talk to someone who called me about having won some prize … and I later realized it was a prize offered by the local mall and I actually had filled out the form, and it was probably real. I doubt it was a prize I really wanted, though. To me, the moral is “don’t sign up for stuff if you won’t take the call in the off chance you win”, not “answer your phone”.
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For while I kept throwing away credit cards that I had signed up for because the envelopes would be indistinguishable from the spam cards I usually get. I had to call the bank to get it sorted out.
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Something tells me everybody won that prize and it was a time share presentation.
I actually did play in the pool. I filled out my sheet in like three minutes. It was $10 so I said what the hell…
I came in fourth in total wins, but I had the most points.
I got an email from my library. I won a prize in the summer reading program. I went to the library, waited around a really long time, and it turned out I won an ipad! I was so excited!!!
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I once considered going on a ‘time share tour’- accepting all the time share presentation offers and then using them to travel the county with free hotels. Hilton was actually willing to pay people to go to them (not much, like 100 bucks, but >0).
It fell apart when I found out it was required to bring your spouse if you are married. Since I was unwilling to lie on the applications about marriage status and unwilling to bring my wife, it was a no go.
also airfare was never covered. so it was only a small discount on the total trip.
Its easier to churn hotel credit card points in the end for hotel stays.
Timeshare presentation giveaways are wasted on me b/c they require travel to the timeshare destination.
and the timeshares they have in vegas are in a sub-optimal location.