Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries
You were solicited via telephone, mail, or email and informed you have won a prize, sweepstakes or a lottery. Consumers often are asked to wire an up‐front fee in order to receive their winnings, allegedly to cover insurance, shipment, taxes, etc. The prize never arrives.
Report
The more national reporting data that’s collected, the better the chance law enforcement has to catch the criminals and decrease online crime. Reporting a fraudulent incident will also assure that you have accurate documentation in order to aid in your recovery. Please consider reporting your incident or chat with an online support specialist at the FTC Complaint Assistant. The FTC will create a report number and a copy of the report for your records.
The FTC cannot resolve individual complaints, but they can provide information about what next steps to take. How much information you give them is up to you. They will share your report with local, state, federal, and foreign law enforcement partners. Your report might be used to investigate cases or in a legal proceeding. Please read their Privacy Policy to learn how they protect your personal information, and when they share it outside the FTC.
The more national reporting data that’s collected, the better the chance law enforcement has to catch the criminals and decrease online crime. Reporting a fraudulent incident will also assure that you have accurate documentation in order to aid in your recovery. Please consider reporting your incident to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Once processed, complaints filed via their website may be referred to federal, state, local, or international law enforcement or regulatory agencies for possible investigation. Any investigation opened on any complaint is initiated at the discretion of the law enforcement and/or regulatory agency receiving the complaint information. Reporting the incident at IC3 will not result in a call back for assistance.
The FAQs about reporting can be found here. Please read the FBI/IC3 privacy policy here.
Recover
The following resources have been gathered and vetted in order to better serve you. These resources have been chosen to help simplify the process of recovery after a cyber incident has taken place. With these resources you may need to contact organizations outside Fraudsupport.org. Results will vary depending on your circumstances.
If you have wired money or made a payment and suspect it is a scam, contact your financial institution and/or the money service you used right away. You can reach the complaint department of MoneyGram at 1-800-MONEYGRAM (1-800-666-3947) or Western Union at 1-800-325-6000.
Get help from your State Consumer Protection Office
Call Victim Connect to get help from a victim advocate
Reinforce
Once the proper organizations have been notified and you are on the road to recovery, it is time to reinforce your cybersecurity. Let’s take action and strengthen your cybersecurity with the following resources and tools.
Educate yourself on prizes, sweepstakes and lottery scams
Other Resources
Learn about common scams
- Consumer Finance
- FTC.gov/scams
- Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker
- Scams and the Military BBB resources
- 10 Scams Targeting Bank Customers
Are you being scammed?
- FBI Fraud Alert
- Identity Theft Resource Center Detecting Scams
- Take the Quiz, “Can you spot an online scam?”
- Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks
Reporting Fraud to Your Internet Service/Phone Carrier
- AT&T https://www.att.com/help/fraud-and-security.html
- Comcast ID Theft Claim Form
- T-Mobile Privacy, Fraud and Identity Theft
- Verizon Phishing FAQs
- CenturyLink – Report Spam and Best Practices for Internet Security
- Frontier Communications Spectrum
- Time Warner Cable Scams and Abuse
