Earlier this year, a lucky couple, Cliff and Tammy Webster, from Oneida, claimed a winning Powerball ticket worth $316.3 million.
“It’s unbelievable,” Cliff Webster said in a Wisconsin Lottery YouTube video. “You don’t know what to do, but at 4:30 a.m., we were hugging and yelling.”
While the family was celebrating their life-changing winnings, scammers were brainstorming a way to earn money off of those winnings, as well.
Susan Bach, the Northeast Wisconsin regional director for the Better Business Bureau, said reports from consumers all over the country have flooded in, claiming that they’ve received text messages from scammers pretending to be the Websters and claiming they want to share their winnings.
“Lottery winner impersonation scams were big even before the Websters won, but when a local couple won, this compounded the problem,” Bach said.
With the holiday season approaching quickly, scammers are bound to increase their activity as people do more online shopping and make hasty purchases.
According to the bureau, more than 750 scams have been reported throughout Wisconsin between January and October.
Joe Benoit, an officer with the Neenah Police Department, said there’s been over 200 reports for scam and fraud in Neenah alone from Jan. 1 to Nov. 3.
While it is common for scammers to target older people, the risk of scam and fraud is high for all age groups.
Always verify to whom you are speaking
Phone call scams are among the most popular strategies scammers use on their…
