The Busted Pipe Chronicles Day 33: I Got A Publishers Clearing House Scam Call

I, like many Texans, had their pipes burst and home flooded with water. Here is my story.

I never really believed in the Publishers Clearing House commercials. You want me to believe they randomly select some person and come to his or her house with a giant check, balloons and a camera crew unannounced? I call bullshit. So when I got a call from a PRIVATE NUMBER claiming to be PCH, I was immediately skeptical. He says I'm a winner but I have to go to Walmart to fill out a PCH form and pay out $500 to claim my prize. He wouldn't tell me how much I won or give me a contact number but he was adamant that I do what he says. He eventually got frustrated that I kept telling him that I could get the money at Walmart instead of a bank and he didn't appreciate that I questioned why I need to pay money to get a prize. So he hung up on me and I googled Walmart's connection with PCH.

Unsurprisingly, PCH scam calls are common this time of year because the whole concept of it is too good to be true. With the Texas Lotto, Powerball, Mega Millions and other contests like that, you pay to enter a drawing or scratch off ticket and if your numbers comes up you win. Then it gets reported on the news that the ticket was sold at a family owned gas station in a small town. So there's proof that the lottery is legit and anyone can win the prize that's offered. Compare that to PCH where the only winners you see is in commercials and there is no news reports about someone winning so people like me think it's a scam. Then actual scammers take advantage of the ambiguity and contact people leading them to think they won when in reality, they're about to get scammed out of money and their personal information.

On PCH's website, they have a link where you can complete a scam report form. Even though I didn't lose anything, I still filled out the form.

Damn, even Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? At least Myspace is safe.

Considering I didn't send him money, I only answered three questions before it was over.

Sorry I don't have more to add than PRIVATE NUMBER. :(

There you go, I did my part in reporting fraud even though I had nothing worthwhile to give them.

Well that was anticlimactic... 

And you can tell they're tired of being associated with fraud. They even have a separate guideline section at the bottom of the page on how the media should report PCH fraud cases. Good thing I'm not part of the media so I can name this blog post whatever I want.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 34: Looking Back On My Old Posts in The Busted Pipe Chronicles.