Got a call the other day from a woman who received a sweepstakes letter announcing she had just won a Spanish sweepstakes to the tune of $950,000.
She knew immediately it was a scam, but it prompted a question that you’ve probably asked yourself a million times, too: How did I get on their mailing list?
If you own property, it’s public information. If you’re listed in a telephone directory, your name and address are there for the taking. If – just for fun – you entered a raffle or filled out one of those “win a free vacation” forms, chances are your contact information was sold to others.
Have you – and this is just between you and me – responded to other phony sweepstakes scams? If so, be prepared to get sweepstakes offers, magical healing product offers and free grant offers ad infinitum.
Getting off – and staying off – scam artists’ mailing lists can be a lesson in futility. What you can do, however, is chuck all junk mail (or better yet, recycle it if that’s an option in your community). Don’t provide your name and address in hopes of winning a vacation, a car or free magazine subscriptions. If you’re getting phony offers online, become acquainted with the delete key and use it with abandon.
Have you found other methods of getting off and staying off mailing lists for phony sweepstakes?