A federal judge has halted an operation that allegedly tricked people into paying a $20 fee to collect a fake multi-million-dollar sweepstakes prize. This case is part of an FTC crackdown on scams that target financially strapped Americans. The FTC is seeking to make the defendants give up their ill-gotten gains.
Some of the mailers claimed that they were affiliated with a government agency, such as the “State of Illinois Commissioners of Regulation” and “OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION,” along with language, symbols, and artwork such as “In God We Trust” and a bald eagle.
The mailers stated that, in order to collect the prize, the consumer had to send a $20 “processing fee” by a certain deadline. Instead of receiving a prize, however, some consumers received information about entering a sweepstakes. The mailers did not clearly inform consumers that they had not won any prize.
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