{"id":97244,"date":"2018-01-06T09:07:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T14:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=97244"},"modified":"2018-01-06T09:11:59","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T14:11:59","slug":"ohio-a-g-warns-of-phony-lottery-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/01\/06\/ohio-a-g-warns-of-phony-lottery-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio A-G warns of phony lottery scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n<p>COLUMBUS &#8212; As the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots rise, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is warning consumers to beware of phony calls and letters saying they\u2019ve won millions of dollars. The Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office has received several reports of the scams this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just warn people to be careful,\u201d Attorney General DeWine said. \u201cIn most cases, if you\u2019re getting a call saying you\u2019ve won millions of dollars, it\u2019s a scam.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The scam generally begins with a call or letter claiming a person has won millions of dollars in a lottery or sweepstakes. The person is asked to wire a few hundred dollars or more to cover \u201cprocessing fees\u201d or taxes in order to receive the winnings. In reality, there is no prize and any money the person sends will go to a scam artist.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, the Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office received about 150 complaints about sweepstakes or prizes. Reported losses often topped several thousand dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Tips to avoid sweepstakes and lottery scams include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t send money to receive a prize<\/strong>. Don\u2019t trust people who contact you unexpectedly, claim you\u2019ve won a lottery or sweepstakes, and ask you to pay to receive the prize. If you truly won, you shouldn\u2019t need to send your own money in advance to receive your winnings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be wary of requests for wire transfers, money orders, or gift cards<\/strong>. These payment methods are used frequently in scams. Once the money is sent, it is difficult to trace or recover it. Also, be wary if you receive an unexpected check in the mail. It may be a counterfeit check used as part of a scam.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Talk to friends and family about scams<\/strong>. Older adults can be especially vulnerable to lottery and sweepstakes scams. If you have older relatives, talk to them about scams and look for signs that they have been targeted. Red flags include unusual banking activities, wire transfer receipts, and an increased number of phone calls made to them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Report potential scams to the Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office at\u00a0<a href=\"x-webdoc:\/\/1F7FFA74-DDC8-449B-BF19-EE5F86BB763C\/www.ohioprotects.org\">www.OhioProtects.org<\/a>\u00a0or by calling 800.282.0515.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Submitted information COLUMBUS &#8212; As the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots rise, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is warning consumers to beware of phony calls and letters saying they\u2019ve won millions of dollars. The Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office has received several reports of the scams this week. \u201cWe just warn people to be careful,\u201d Attorney [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 15:53:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}