“You’ve won a prize?” Perhaps a scam!

If you get a call saying “you’ve won a prize,” you might be thinking, why not claim it? Unfortunately, it’s likely a scam to steal your money — especially if it’s for a contest you didn’t enter. So how can you spot and avoid a prize scam?

Here’s how these scams often go. You get a call out of the blue saying you’ve won something — maybe a new car, a laptop or money. The caller might even claim they’re with a well-known company, hoping to seem legitimate. (They’re not.) Before you can claim your prize, they say you need to pay “taxes,” “shipping and handling charges” or “processing fees.” (You don’t.) 

Bottom line: if they say there’s a charge to get your prize, it’s a scam. If you pay, you’ll end up losing money instead of winning anything.

To help you avoid a prize scam:

1. Slow down. Scammers will say “it’s a limited time offer” to try to pressure you to act quickly. 
2. Know that real prizes are free. 
3. Do research. Search online for the name of the contest or the company with words like “complaint,” “review” or “scam” to see what others are saying.