One Smart Floridian

An 84-year-old resident of Bob Hope Village was instructed not to answer unknown numbers after a person who identified himself as a sweepstakes representative continuously called her.

The caller, who had a Jamaican accent, told the woman that she had been “randomly picked” and was a winner of $750,000, according to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office report.

He told her that, in order to get the money, she needed to go to a Wal-Mart and wire $150 to a Jamaican address. The caller said the money was required by the IRS to cover insurance and miscellaneous costs.

Once she did this, he told her the U.S. Marshals would deliver the check to her.

A sheriff’s deputy came to the woman’s residence on Sept. 15 and called the sweepstakes number pretending to be her grandson.

.......The woman did not give the caller any personal information. The deputy told her not to answer the phone if she did not recognize the number.

There's two things you should take away from this:

1) You do not have to pay any money at all to collect sweepstakes winnings. What is the likelihood that if someone else received this phone call, they would have thought to themselves: "$150 isn't much money for the chance that this could be for real, this may be a scam but I'll chance it because I could use $750K!". Remember, in some foreign countries, $150 in American dollars can go a long way, and it's worth it for the scammer to risk trouble with the authorities over what seems to be such a small amount. The proper amount of money to pay to collect genuine sweepstakes winnings is $0.00.

2) This woman must have caller ID as she was told not to answer the phone if she didn't recognize the number. This isn't always the best advice, as I've had to make emergency calls to family members before from borrowed cell phones. My phone calls would have been refused if I had given everyone I know this advice. However, if you feel your loved ones are at risked of being scammed in a telephone operation, you may want to pass along this little tidbit, if they do have a caller ID-enabled phone.