The Usual Scam

A person receives a call claiming they have won $18.5 million and a car from Publishers' Clearinghouse. They are told they need to pay a 1% tax of $500 in order to receive the prize. The person has to go to a convenience store to purchase a Green Dot Money Pack card. They initially only have enough money for one card, but the caller offers to have the company cover the remaining $500. The person mentions they need the money for medication. Hello. Yes. A special, wonderful, good afternoon to you. How are you doing today? Good afternoon. How are you? I'm doing great. I have a code or something. Yes. That's a confirmation code number? Yes. It's 85647PCH. Okay. Can you also provide me with your name so I can see what type of prize you have won here? Yes. That's Eric Lester. Eric Lester, and also your address as well? It's 269 Chestnut Street, and that's in Irondale, Alabama. Postal code, or zip code, V, sorry. Sorry about that. I'm just having trouble here. Do you need my zip code? Yes. You can just provide me with your whole address. It's nothing. Okay. It's 35210, and that's 216 Chestnut Street, and that's in Irondale. Okay. And your name is ... What's your name again? I just told you my name. Lester, right? You got it. Okay. All right, so hold the line, please, so I can pull up the file here to see what type of prize you have won here, okay? It says it was 18.5. Yes, but I'm going to tell you what more to it, all right? Okay. All right. What startup bonus you have won as well? Hold the line for me, please. Okay. You can see here wherein you have won yourself $18.5 million in a certified secure set. Pardon? That's a lot of money. Well, that's what God has blessed you with. Wow. I am truly blessed. Okay. Also, you will be receiving a 2023 Mercedes-Benz car, and also $7,000 you will be receiving as a bonus, okay? That will be for the rest of your life, each and every week. I just want to say a warm congratulations to you here. Welcome to a lifetime of work and freedom and financial success. May the good Lord continue to bless you on a beautiful day like this. How are you feeling to know that you are a lucky winner here from the Publishers' Clearinghouse? I'm feeling pretty lucky. You're feeling pretty lucky. You're feeling pretty lucky. Well, that is indeed right, because the Lord has blessed you with all these financial breakthroughs. You may be going through a lot of stress, a lot of worries, a lot of pain. No, I'm not going through a lot of stress. You read my mind. Well, it's just my words to you. I'm going through extra stress right now, you know, extra amount. And what causes that? Ex-girlfriends and stuff like that, being a pain in the ass. Well, I don't think you should be having no form of worries or problem right now, because what happened here now, you're becoming a millionaire today, and you're going to become a president in your residence. I want to be a nun or something like that, you know. I want people to look up to me and respect me. Yes, because you have the perfect opportunity for them to look up to you and respect you, because you are a millionaire right now. Okay? You are a multi-millionaire. No one can stop you from doing nothing you wanted to do. Anything that you tried to do before and you cannot do it, now is the perfect opportunity, now is the perfect time for you to do it. So I just say what you're going to do, you're just going to sit back and relax and enjoy all this money here for you. Okay? Okay. Now I just want you to just do the right and do the safe thing, all right? Do not go around and spend out your money and squander your money, because remember, everything nowadays, it does cost money, okay? So that ex-girlfriend that you're worrying about, maybe she was just a gold digger or something and she's not going to stick around because you don't have anything. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, brother. Yeah, so you have your money now, you can do anything, you can even buy her back if you want to. I'm going to buy her a trip all the way to Antarctica or somewhere, you know, a little foggy, because she's cold-hearted. Okay. So do whatever you want to do, so what you're going to require to do right now here. Yeah. Whatever you need, man, whatever you need, I can do. Now what you're required to do here to receive your prize, now you know that once you're receiving more than $100,000 in the United States of America, you know that you're required to pay taxes, right? Well, yeah. Okay, wonderful. Now what happened here is that your company, they have been the beneficiary, go ahead and take care of 99% of all the income taxes, all the back taxes and all the other taxes it's supposed to be. Now we have just released a small 1% of tax charges for you as the recipient in which you're required to be taking care of that 1% tax so that the prize can be 100% tax-free. Now that 1% that is required for you to be taken care of, it contains your Federal Reserve Stamp. It's called an Activation and Registration Submission of a Clearance for your Tissuer Check, the $18.5 million. Pardon? Yeah, I was just going like, mm-hmm. Okay. So do you understand exactly what I'm stating to you right now? Yeah. There's a tax or something I have to pay or something? Yes, there will be a tax that is required for you to be taken care of. Okay? Okay. Okay. All right. Now that 1% tax that you're required to be taken care of here, it will only be costing you the sum of only $500 here. Okay? Just $500? Okay. Yes, sir. Now, where you can be paying this taxes, you can be having it been done by picking up yourself a Claimers Registration Card as well. All right? Mm-hmm. Now, where you can be picking up that card, you can be picking up the card at the nearest convenience store, which is the Walmart, the Rite Aid, 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Dollar General, Cougars, or the Kmart, okay? Yeah. Or the CVS Pharmacy. Now, which one of those stores is the closest to you? The 7-Eleven, I guess. 7-Eleven? Yeah. Okay. Do you have your own transportation that can take you on the road? I got to walk down there. Pardon? I got to walk. Oh, you got to walk. Okay. So, what you're going to be able to do, what you're going to do now, you're going to be getting yourself a clean sheet of paper here and a proper working pen. I'll be providing you with the name of the card that you will be obtaining here, okay? Okay. Okay. Let me know when you have the pen and the paper. Oh, I already do. I have a pen and a paper in my hand. Okay. The name of the card, is it a green, G-R-E-E-N? Mm-hmm. Dot, D-O-T? Money Pack. Right, right. You're familiar with them, right? Oh, yes. Okay. Now, that's the card that you're going to be obtaining, okay? Okay. All right. Now, is this your cell phone or is it your home phone? This is my cell phone. It's your cell phone. Okay. Okay. Now, what I want to explain to you again that this call here, it is monitored and recorded for quality purposes by the Homeland Security and the Better Business Bureau, okay? Okay. Yes. So, our conversation, it has been recorded here. All right? So, are you familiar just to go on the road right now? I don't have wheels. You don't have any wheels? That's what I said, but I don't know how to walk. Yes, you said you can walk by the 7-Eleven, right? Yeah. It'll take me about 15 to get down there. Take you 15 minutes? Yes. Okay. So, it will take you 15 minutes to go there and come back. So, the overall time, it will be 30 minutes, right? Somewhere around then. Somewhere around then. Yep. Okay. Well, what happened here, while you're going there, you can even leave the line open, okay? While you're going there, or if you wanted to call me back as soon as you're there, you can do so because I'm going to give you my callback number, okay? Okay. It's whatever you're comfortable doing. So, my callback number here, it is 843-932-0424. Okay. All right? Now, listen, the card here, you're familiar with it, right? Yeah, I think so, yeah. And you know it's a 14-number card. Yeah, 14, yeah. Yeah, 14 numbers. Yeah. How much do you want me to put on it? Okay, you're going to get two of them, okay? Okay. $500 each. Oh, so you want me to get $1,000 now? That's right. Okay, how come the price went up? That's what I said at first. You only said $500 at first. I said twice. You're going to get two cards. No, you only said one. You said $500. All right, listen. Can you only afford one at this moment or two of them? I only got enough for one card. You only have $500? Yeah, and that's for my medication. Okay. Don't worry yourself. Don't worry yourself. I'll have my manager be contacted. The sponsorship company so they can take care of the next $500 for you, okay? Yeah, okay. All right. Do you have a proper banking account?