Don't be sucker for the lottery scam

I am a multi-millionare. Really I am. It says so in the letter I received yesterday.

All I have to do to get it, or so the letter states, is to sign the provided “Sweepstakes Audit Bureau Claim Form” and send them $5 because they “cannot process my claim for eligibility to their sweepstakes, of over $12 million” until they have my completed Claim Form and fee for “research and data.”

Oh, goody!

It’s curious. I had never heard of this sweepstake and hadn’t entered it when I began receiving letters way last summer congratulating me on being winner of a huge amount of money. At that time they asked for $19 and some cents to send the winnings to me.

Several other letters followed, each declaring me a winner if I’d just sign and return the claim form with their fee.

These offers brought to mind George Hull’s quote (often attributed to P.T. Barnum), “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

I enter sweepstakes, yes, but only those that pay off.

Even then, I know there is a cost and it’s a gamble for sweepstakes. They are seldom for hopeful winners, or for altruistic reasons, but for the profit of the sponsors.

Knowing ahead of time that there are scams parading as chances to a fortune, I hold my fist close to my pocket to prevent becoming an unknowing, unwilling victim or sucker. Most sweepstakes really are a sucker’s game. Even legitimate sweepstakes depend purely on chance.

Contests are more legitimate than sweepstakes because sponsors expect to receive publicity for a business or endeavor of some sort that would be part of their advertising budget.

Any required fee is announced in the rules before the contest entry is submitted. The quality of the contest entry is judged according to a set of rules where random chance is minimized.

So, go ahead, enter contests to please contest judges.

But know that your chances decrease with sweepstakes unless you have the inside track with Lady Luck.