Quick & Simple Scam - Scammers Turn Legitimate Winners into Victims

One of the hurdles that con men face when running a sweepstakes scam is that most people are naturally skeptical when someone calls them out of the blue and asks them to send money. There are many methods that scammers use to build enough trust that their victims will set aside their natural skepticism, such as claiming they work for a government agency or a familiar company like Microsoft or Yahoo. Sweepers are beginning to report a new tactic, however, that could be very effective.

The scam goes something like this: A bunch of people who recently won prizes from Quick & Simple Magazine received phone calls congratulating them on their wins. The caller then says that their win has made them eligible for a Quick & Simple corporate prize draw, and that they have won a prize worth thousands of dollars. From there, the spiel is a typical sweepstakes scam -- all you have to do is send them 1% of the funds in advance to receive your prize.

We should all recognize that asking for money to receive a prize is one of the top warning signs of a sweepstakes scam. However, the Quick & Simple Scam is effective because the scammer knows a lot of information that it doesn't seem that he would unless he really worked for Quick & Simple, including:

• The name of the winner.
• The exact prize that was won.
• The contest that was won.
• The contact information to reach the winner.

So how did the caller get this information without working for Quick & Simple? Easy. The Quick & Simple Winners List. Right now, that list only contains the names and the prizes "due to security concerns." Before people started reporting this scam, the list also included the city and state of the information (and some older Quick & Simple winners lists still do). The scammers simply looked up the telephone number in caller assistance.

Note that Quick & Simple sweepstakes are not scams in and of themselves - they really award valuable prizes. While listing so much information about their winners made those winners vulnerable to fraud, there are many places that scam artists can find similar information, and use the details that they find about you as part of their scheme to make their victims believe them.

The real lesson from all of this is that scams are also called confidence games because the perpetrators are experts at gaining trust through many underhanded methods. You have to be alert to the top warning signs of sweepstakes scams no matter how convincing or trustworthy an offer may sound. If you aren't sure, tell the caller you need time to think it over and research your win using the method described in Before You Respond to Win Notifications.