Sweepstakes scheme was too good to be true

The Daily Inter Lake

A Bigfork woman was skeptical about the news that she won a $2.2 million sweepstakes, but even investigators said the scammers were sophisticated in their work.

The woman wound up losing no money, but the phony prize company wanted $6,000 from her.

In an exchange that lasted for a week or so, swindlers baited the woman by telling her she had won the money in a Time-Life sweepstakes. They didn't ask for her bank account number or request money right away, the way the scam usually works.

They gave her a phone number and told her they would arrive at Grouse Mountain Lodge and then would present her winnings to her at her bank.

They started asking her for small favors to build up rapport and trust, according to Bruce Parish, detective commander for the Flathead County Sheriff's Office.

They asked her first if she would give them a ride from the airport to the hotel, but then said they would rent a car. They asked her to change their reservation from a smoking to nonsmoking room. That proved to her that they had reservations.

They warned her that she would have to pay about $300,000 of her winnings to the Internal Revenue Service.

Then the hook came.

Over the weekend, they called to say their tax lawyer had found a way to reduce that amount to about $200,000. They' would need $6,000 from her to pay the lawyer's fee.

They told her that a cashier's check wouldn't do and that her bank had approved a cash advance for that amount. A courier would pick it up. They wanted serial numbers from $100 bills and told her how to package the money.

The woman, though excited about the possibilities, was skeptical and contacted the state Department of Commerce, which referred her to the sheriff's office. She kept in touch with Parish throughout the exchange of calls.

Once the con artists asked for $6,000, Parish knew it was a scam.

He planned to meet the "courier" at the woman's home for the pickup of her cash, but the schemers changed their plan and told her to send the money by UPS to an address in British Columbia, Canada.

That's when Parish stopped the deal.

On Monday, he called the number the woman had for the sweepstakes office. He identified himself and said he understood a man named "Eric Bailey" there had been talking to the Bigfork woman about her big win. The man hung up.

Parish called back and left a message on an answering machine, saying he was sorry the scammers hadn't shown up at the woman's house to pick up the money because he was "really looking forward to meeting you."

The Canadian government may investigate the scam, he said.

He reminded residents to be wary of anything that sounds so good.

While this case was more sophisticated than most, there were some red flags, he said.

Any legitimate sweepstakes takes taxes off the top before awards are given. Winners never have to pay their own taxes, Parish said.

Anytime someone says a winner has to pay money for any reason to get their money, something's wrong, he said.

If anything seems suspicious, call police, Sheriff Jim Dupont said.

"Call us. We'll find out," he said.