(PIKESVILLE, MD) \u2013 Maryland State Police are warning the public about telephone scams in which the caller claims to be an agent for Publishers Clearing House, stating that the person contacted had \u201cwon the grand prize\u201d from Publishers Clearing House, but only after paying a $250 \u201cfee\u201d to cover the cost of taxes.<\/p>\n
This scam serves as a reminder that Publishers Clearing House and other sweepstakes do not require upfront fees to cover the cost of winning prizes. Visit the PCH website for further information: https:\/\/info.pch.com\/tips-and-warning-signs<\/a> or call their toll free number:\u00a0 800-392-4190. The Federal Trade Commission also offers information on reporting telephone scams;\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/articles\/0208-phone-scams<\/a>\u00a0 1-877-FTC-HELP.<\/p>\n This most recent case involved people in the Upper Eastern Shore region who reported receiving a telephone call from someone who identified themselves as \u201cAgent John Clark\u201d calling on behalf of Publishers Clearing House, saying the citizen had won the grand prize, but needed to send in $250 first, in the form of a wire transfer, or a loaded gift card, to cover the cost of taxes.\u00a0 This is just one of several telephone scams reported to Maryland State Police.<\/p>\n ###<\/strong><\/p>\n CONTACT:<\/strong> Office of Media Communications (PIKESVILLE, MD) \u2013 Maryland State Police are warning the public about telephone scams in which the caller claims to be an agent for Publishers Clearing House, stating that the person contacted had \u201cwon the grand prize\u201d from Publishers Clearing House, but only after paying a $250 \u201cfee\u201d to cover the cost of taxes. This scam Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,28,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barrackss-centreville","category-press-releases","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18022,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18002\/revisions\/18022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nmsp.media@maryland.gov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"