Not the Publishers Clearing House

[morrand]

It's no news at all that there are a lot of contests going on out in scammer-land, involving all sorts of companies and promising all sorts of rewards that you'll never actually get. But it's always really odd to get one through the actual, postal mail. Since we don't seem to have had any reports here recently, I thought I'd share one I just got in this morning's mail.

Running this scam through the mail is problematic for a couple of reasons, not least being the cost of paper and postage involved. What's especially weird is that it came in an envelope bearing a Canada Post imprint (permit #7311809), which suggests that someone not only paid postage, but international postage, to get this through. Beats me why they would, but all right. They must be sure this will be a profitable scheme.

Anyway, the letter runs as follows, leading off with a PCH graphic that is crushed vertically and is otherwise generally crappy:

Publishers Clearing House
382 Channel Drive
Port Washington NY 11050

February 11, 2019

Toll Free: 1-877-772-4470
1-516-441-0256

PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INC.
REF. NO: SW20160179/PCH/NYQ
BATCH NUMBER: 00019854/1400
WINNING NUMBER: CN8856/ZX195

[my address redacted]

FINAL NOTICE OF WINNING

We are happy to announce the results of our draw (#6900) from PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE held on January 2018. Your name and address is attached to the ticket number# AZ416228/11. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of $12,800,000.00 (Twelve Million Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars) in cash, credited to reference number# SW20160179/PCH/NYQ. This is from a total prize of $180,000,000.00 to be split amongst the first ten lucky winners of this program; we conduct a semi-annual lotto in which we draw three grand prize winners as our promotions to North American citizens. The lottery is promoted and sponsored by Travis International, Visa Card, Master Card and Amex as a social responsibility to the citizens of North America.

All participants were selected through a balloting system which has been drawn from ninety thousand stores from Canada and the United States; upon using your credit card(s) and debit card(s) at various stores, your name is automatically entered into the draw. Please contact the Publishers Clearing House Office located at Port Washington, NY; and speak to your agent who will advise you on how to claim your prize through THEGLOBAL TRUST FUND and THE BANK OF AMERICA. This prize will be processed and released to you by contacting any one of our processing agents immediately at: 1-877-772-4470 or 1-646-585-0466. Jacob Atkinson, Extension 1. Mike Miller, Extension 2. John Ellah, Extension 3. David Johnson, Extension 6. Customer Service Representative, Extension 0.

NOTE: Your account will be processed and must leave our office within 5 business days of opening your file. Please contact your agent for instructions on how to claim your prize. Be prepared to verify identity and take legal steps in securing the release of your winnings. Be advised to keep this award from public notice until your claim is processed and money is remitted into your account of your choice, as this is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unwarranted abuse of these programs by participants. Congratulations and thank you for being part of our program. All funds must be claimed within 5 business days of receiving this notice; otherwise all funds will be returned as unclaimed and will be donated to charity.

Congratulations once again!

Sincerely,

[signed, but apparently not with this name:]

ANDREW GOLDBERG, CEO, Publishers Clearing House Inc.

It does amaze me that the text really does not change on this sort of thing. It would be as good a cover story to say that you had won the well-known Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, rather than social responsibility and credit card usage and so on.

I took the liberty of looking up the Port Washington address in Google Maps. It may have been PCH headquarters at some point, and it's still so labeled, but the street pictures from last summer make it look like a real dump. The building also seems to need a new roof; I guess selling magazines isn't as lucrative as it used to be. PCH's Web form for reporting things like this asks for copies to an address in Jericho, N.Y., anyway, and not Port Washington, so I presume that whoever sent this letter not only used a boring, generic, lottery-scam template, but also used PCH's old address and didn't bother to update. Maybe they deliberately used a wrong address in the hopes of delaying detection, but somehow I don't think anyone involved has thought that hard about it.

[fortinbras]

This is rather clever, by using an obsolete PCH address recipients who search on the internet using the address will be told it is PCH. But the five-day deadline on phoning in will prevent them from verifying by mailing something to that address and having it returned. These people are probably going to make a lot of money, and the fact that they mailed it from Canada - adding about 75 cents postage to every envelope - was a cheap way to confuse the authorities about which country to search for them. Most recipients, being in a great hurry to get the money, will give over the phone the account numbers of their current bank accounts and by the end of the day those accounts will be drained. I am almost sorry I didn't up this one myself.

[Burnaby49]

These people are probably going to make a lot of money, and the fact that they mailed it from Canada - adding about 75 cents postage to every envelope - was a cheap way to confuse the authorities about which country to search for them.

Or it could just be my way of picking up a bit of post-retirement income.