WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
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professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
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of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
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The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational
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purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional
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legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted
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sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the
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elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to
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a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must-listen show
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for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their loved
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ones from scams. Every Tuesday at 8 a.m. Pacific Time
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on K4HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose, and her
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guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips on how
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to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And now, here
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is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
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Good morning, everybody. My name is Brian Watson, Community Outreach
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Specialist for ROSE, Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly. And
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I am filling in for Joyce for the next three weeks.
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So I appreciate the opportunity, Joyce. Thank you, everybody, for
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tuning in. And we are going to send you home
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with some good information, I promise. So today's topic, the
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title of today's show is You Didn't Win the Publisher's
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Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. And yes, it's a scam that's been around
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a long time. And like any bad scam, it keeps
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coming back over and over. So I'm going to tell
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you some stories today about the scam and share these
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stories with people you know. We need to talk about
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scams on a daily basis or at least a weekly basis.
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So it's just always in the back of our mind,
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could this be a scam? So about two years ago,
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I did a fraud prevention presentation in my town where
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I live. And a gentleman came up to me after
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the event and he said, would you review some documents
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for me? I think I've won a prize, but I'm
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not sure. I've given them a bunch of money. And
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he said it was the publisher's clearinghouse. So I stepped
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in the back of the room, looked at his documents
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and one of the documents was a photo of a
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$ 10 million check. And then there were some other documents and,
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and I knew right away, this was a scam. Um, and, uh,
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he had told me at that point, well, I've already
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paid over a quarter million dollars in fees and taxes
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and processing expenses and to claim the price. And I
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looked at him and I said, I said, sir, don't
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send another dime. I'm like, this is a complete scam.
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And I still remember the look in this gentleman's eyes.
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It was just utter devastation. He was the victim of
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what's called the publisher's clearinghouse sweepstakes scam. For the remainder
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of today's show, I'm just going to refer to it
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as the PCH scam. So let's talk about how the
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PCH scam works. The criminals, the fraudsters, can reach out
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in a variety of ways. It can be the, be
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a phone call, email, text message, social media, and sometimes
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even letters.
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Yeah.
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Criminals still send letters sometimes. And if they do call you,
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they can spoof the phone number on your phone. So
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when you, when you, when you hold up your cell
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phone and you look on there, it'll say publishers clearing
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house and you think, wow, why are they calling me? So,
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They tell the potential victim when you pick up the
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phone that you won a huge prize. And we're talking hundreds. Well, really,
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we're talking millions of dollars. And they prey on your
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emotions by getting you excited because you're going to win
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this huge, large amount of money. So once they get
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you all excited, you know, the fine print, they say
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you cannot claim this prize. The prize cannot be released
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until the winner pays the required taxes. processing fees, custom duties,
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and things like that. And at that point, they'll instruct
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the victim to pay via, it could be prepaid cards,
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wire transfers, cryptocurrency, even cashier's checks. They can do a
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variety of different ways. Just remember this, the real PCH,
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publishers clearinghouse, will never ask you to pay money to
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claim a prize. So it got me thinking, this PCH
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scam perfectly follows our anatomy of a scam. Um, and
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it's something we share at Rose. It's an infographic and
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there's three parts. The first part is the scammers have
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to contact you. And on our anatomy of a scam,
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that section is blue because they contact you out of
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the blue. And then the next thing is, ah, thanks Juan.
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I appreciate that. And, uh, they give you a, and
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the next thing is you get a compelling reason to act. Um,
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They will get you into a heightened emotional state because
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we don't think clear when we're in that state. Most scams,
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it's fear or panic. This time, it's excitement. On our infographic,
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we have greed. I don't know if it's necessarily greed.
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I think it's more just the desire to win and
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being able to have this money. And then obviously, the
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final stage is requesting payment. And that's why we have
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that in green. Like I said, they're going to ask
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for cryptocurrency, gift cards, wire transfers, whatever it is. Thank you.
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So the reason why the PCH scam works is because
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criminals exploit a well-recognized name and they pretend to be
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from the real publisher's clearinghouse. We've all seen those commercials.
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I saw these commercials as a kid where the prize
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patrol comes out to your house with this big check
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and balloons and they're out front and there's TV cameras
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and it's all exciting. So we've, we all want to
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be that person. You know, think about it. You get
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that money and you can pay off all your bills.
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You can buy a new car. You can move to
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a new house. You can take care of your family.
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It's amazing. My mom got this phone call a few
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years ago and she told me they, you know, once they,
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told her she won a prize. Then they give her
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the choice. Well, do you want the big check in
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front of your house or do you want to make
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it low key? So it's almost like they're taking you
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down that path that they're going to get you on.
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So the reason I'm doing this show today on the
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PCH scam is it's still a problem. I spoke to
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a woman in Tucson, Arizona this summer, and I had
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found out she had sent money to a scammer, um,
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she received a phone call from this guy. He convinced
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her she'd won the PCH sweepstakes. Um, she was real,
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you know, not real sure on how much she gave,
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you know, a lot of time that's, that's part of
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the embarrassment and shame. She didn't want to fully admit
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how much, um, had been taking, taken from her. Um, but,
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we made sure that she recognized that it was a
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scam and we said, don't send any more money. But
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you know what? These criminals don't quit. I have a
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fear that that scammer will reach out to her again
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and say, you know what? This prize is still there.
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It's just waiting for you. All we need is that
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last tax payment or that last processing fee and you'll
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have this money. So they are absolutely relentless. So I
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always get the question too is, are we doing anything
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about this? Is the government doing anything? Police, federal agents, Congress,
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are we having any success? And the truth is, law
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enforcement is absolutely overwhelmed. There are so many scammers and
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the numbers are increasing. There are more and more scammers.
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Law enforcement is overwhelmed. That's why at Rose, we are
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in the prevention business. We are trying to get out
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in front and warn people about these scams in the
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first place. But yes, there has been some good news
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in the fight against this scam. Over the past five
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years or so, the United States Attorney's Office in Tucson,
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Arizona has successfully charged, extradited, and secured convictions on numerous
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PCH scammers, many of which actually come out of Jamaica,
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which is interesting because in Jamaica, they speak English. So
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it works very well to contact Americans because they have
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really good English in Jamaica. I sat in on one
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of those trials and I learned at the trial that
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the scammers focus their energy on individuals who are 80
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years and above. They would actually purchase lead lists. It's
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like lists of names and phone numbers and addresses. And
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they only wanted to call people who were 80 plus.
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And I thought, Why is that? Every age group gets scammed.
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But they must have thought they had a better chance
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to steal money from fellow Americans that are older. And
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this was very interesting. The one day I attended the trial,
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one of the victims actually testified from the grave. Yes,
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the government interviewed her, did a recorded deposition. because she
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was such a key witness and the court allowed this
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deposition to be entered into evidence at trial. So they
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played her voice. So even though she had passed away
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between the time she got scammed and by the time
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the government was able to get this case to trial,
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she testified from the grave and that defendant was found guilty.
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So yes, there is some, some good news. So, but still,
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It's way better to prevent these scams in the first
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place by hanging up, identifying the scam right away, and
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don't engaging with these people. You know, there's that old saying,
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if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Yes,
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you didn't win the publisher's clearinghouse sweepstakes. You didn't enter
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and you didn't win. If they're asking for money, you
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know it's a scam. So if and when you get
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this call, you have to be prepared to hang up.
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Let me tell you a funny story. They actually called
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me on my government-issued cell phone when I was in
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the federal building in Tucson, Arizona. It was about 10
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years ago. It was around lunchtime. My phone rings. I
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pull the phone out of my pocket, and I look
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at it. The caller ID didn't say Publisher's Clearinghouse, but
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it actually said Kingston, Jamaica. And this was the time
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when these investigations were going on. So I knew exactly
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what was going on. I knew it was the PCH scam.
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So I answered the phone, just kind of played dumb.
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And the caller asked if I'd ever heard of the
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PCH sweepstakes. And I kind of blew it. I would
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never make a good undercover agent. But I said, oh,
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Publisher's Clearinghouse. I don't ever remember entering. And I think
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he could just tell I was not going to. be
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a victim of the scam. And he just hung up
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on me. I don't know why. Like I said, I'd
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make a terrible undercover agent, but this shows they're coming
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after all of us. Um, they may be targeting people
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who are 80 plus, but they were contacted me 10
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years ago and I was in my forties and they're
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literally just calling every number. It's just the shotgun effect effect. Shoot,
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make as many phone calls as possible and see what happens. So,
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So that's the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes in a nutshell. It
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works because people want to win. It worked because we
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answer our phone when it says Publishers Clearinghouse on the
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caller ID. And it worked because we all get excited
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and make bad decisions when it comes to money. We
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all can be guilty of it. What I've learned is
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everyone can be scammed. So we have to be very alert.
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And then one last thing, let me go back to
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that gentleman I told you about earlier that had sent
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in about a quarter million dollars to the scammer. I
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checked on him a week or so later just to
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see if he was doing okay. You know, I wanted
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to help him report the loss to law enforcement, but
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I was just worried about him and he didn't sound
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good over the phone. He sounded very depressed. And even
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though he was in his 70s, he was going to
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go back to work because he'd actually sold some assets
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to come up with that $ 250, 000. And it's just sad.
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There's real-life consequences to these scams. And that man will
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never be the same. So we at Rose desire that
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nobody falls for scams. It just breaks our heart when
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we hear these stories. It's gotten to the point now
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where I hear stories of victims on a weekly basis,
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sometimes even multiple times a week. And it's absolutely frustrating.
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So how do we stop these scammers? It's through education.
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It's through prevention. It's through collaboration. So please sign up
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for our monthly email. Go to roseadvocacy.org right there on
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the screen. Super easy. Go on there. the bottom of
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our page, there's a blue button says sign up for
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our mailing list or email list. All we're asked for
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is your name and your email. I know you'll like
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the information. If you like it, share it with your friends, family, neighbors.
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We want more and more people on our list just
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to spread the word. If you don't like it, you
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can unsubscribe. We won't have our feelings hurt. We have
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a lot of choices out there, but we provide good content.
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And then more importantly, Tell someone about this PCH scam,
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especially someone that lives by themselves, is very trusting, answers
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the phone, and really anybody. But those are the people
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I worry about most. But also talk to it with
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your parents. Talk about it with your kids. Talk about
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it with people at work. Talking scams is not always
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the most exciting thing to talk about because it can
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be a dreary topic. but it has life changing consequences.
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If you just spend five or 10, 15 minutes a
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week doing something about scam prevention, you are going to
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save a lot of money, save a lot of grief,
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save a lot of depression. So thank you for listening.