Scams

When you win a sweepstakes you are never going to be asked to pay for anything up front – the IRS will take care of this when you get your winnings or on the next tax return!

When you win a sweepstakes, you never give out a credit card or social security number over the phone. The only exception is – and this is a big maybe - when you call the company and you are telling them that you can calling in to claim a prize that you are holding an instant win game piece.

Phone in entries are almost 99% recordings – so beware if you get a live person trying to sell you anything, don’t answer their questions and you don’t have to buy anything.

When you get postcards in the mail about someone trying to contact you about a prize you have won but don’t have record of this company or anything – it is most likely a sales pitch. Call from a pay phone and see if it is a sales pitch or a phone call that is going to cost you hundreds of dollars in fees!

If you are online and entering a brand name sweepstakes but you are taken to another website that you don’t recognize the name or pages on the site any longer, this could be a scam of someone wanting to collect names and information of people interested in this type of product.

When entering your sweepstakes online, you should never fill out your driver’s number, your social security number or your mothers’ maiden name for any reasons. This also applies to giving out any type of bank account numbers and credit card numbers on line when you are not ordering anything.

If entering a contest you never have to buy anything in order to win – this is the law.

Be sure never to call a 900 number when you are inquiring about a sweepstakes – these are pay per minute calls and you won’t be winning anything but a large phone bill.

How can you tell a real sweepstakes from a scam?

When you are on the hunt for sweepstakes, contests, and prizes, be sure to look for these items in the rules and regulations sections for more information:

There should never be a purchase needed. A sweepstakes is the giving away of a prize for nothing, and you need to remember this as it is the law, if they are trying to get you to purchase or enter with a purchase it is most likely a scam.

Every sweeps needs to list when the contest started and when it ends to be legitimate.

The rules will state who can enter, where you have to live, where you can’t live and what age you have to be to enter a sweepstakes.

There needs to be instructions on how to enter, and in if you can enter offline. Some will state online entries only, other will state alternative entry methods.

What the prize is, how much the prize is worth, and the number of prizes to be given away will be listed in the rules of the sweepstakes.

How winners are selected will be listed in sweepstakes that are for real.

The sponsor of the sweepstakes is generally listed in the beginning or in the end of the rules and regulations.

How to get a complete copy of the rules will be listed in a shortened version.