Can you imagine winning the lottery? I can think of a few things I would spend the money on. Can you also imagine winning a lottery that you never entered? That doesn’t happen, but scammers want to make you think it does.

I’m sure many of you have received a call from someone claiming you won a big sum of money, but there’s always a hook. I talked with one man who got a call saying he won big.

“It started with a phone call and they asked me if I had received any information about my winnings for the America Mega Millions Lottery Sweepstakes. I told him, ‘No I don’t know anything about it,’” said Charles. “They explained to me that I had won a $1.5 million and a 2018 Mercedes-Benz.”

However, in order to collect his prize, the scammers wanted him to pay up.

“The company was going to pay 95 percent of the taxes and I had to pay 5 percent, which at that time was only $300,” said Charles.

The scammer wanted Charles to go to the store and purchase gift cards to pay off the balance. Scammers will ask for gift cards a lot because they are really hard to trace once they use the money.

“I was supposed to send that to them and cover my part of the taxes and shipping and handling for this 2018 Mercedes.”

He refused to pay the $300 and hung up the phone. The scammers called back nearly 10 times a day.

“Two days later it was I won $800,000 and the Mercedes,” said Charles. “He was Michael from the American Mega Millions and he wanted to know why I had not claimed my prize and I said ‘Well I don’t have any paperwork. I don’t know who you people are.’ He said, ‘We don’t send out information to winners.’” He hung up the phone.

Then, he got a check in the mail for thousands of dollars. “I’m supposed to call this guy and then he authorizes it and then I go cash it somewhere and get him $5,600 out of the $6,980 and then he will hand me over a check for $343,020,’” said Charles.

However, the envelope came from Canada and the check inside was from Seattle. Charles said that was a red flag and he knew that, too, was a scam.

I checked and the legitimate Mega Millions Lottery warns about scams just like this one. The lottery says criminals contact consumers by email, telephone, cellphone and through social media.

Their website says scammers often target older people and are known to wipe out retirement savings. Scammers will often send checks to the winner and ask them to send money back. After the victims send money or give the crooks a gift card, then the victim finds out the check they got is counterfeit. Like the lottery says, you can’t win a legitimate lottery if you didn’t buy a ticket.

“If it sounds too good,” Charles added. “Don’t do it.”

If you’re ever unsure if you’re dealing with a scam, reach out to our 11 Call for Action team at 719-457-8211.