CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Scam artists convinced an 82-year-old man to send them $13,000 after they told him he won more than $1 million from Publisher's Clearing House.
They told the man, who does not want to be identified, in December to send $999 in the mail.
"I kept feeling (that) the way the man talked and he presented himself, it seemed realistic," the victim said.
He thought the call was from Publishers Clearing House, a company he'd dealt with before, so he sent a check to an address in Louisiana.
In the weeks that followed, he sent more money to addresses in New York and Florida totaling $13,000, according to police reports.
The caller said the payments would help the FBI transport his prize.
He said he knew something was wrong.
"All the way through it, but I was still stupid enough to keep going and send more money," he said.
The con artists sent him a briefcase saying it contained $200,000, just to string him along.
They told him he couldn't open it until they sent the combination.
The victim's daughter learned what was going on and called police, who opened the briefcase, which was full of blank paper and envelopes.
An alert on the Publishers Clearing House website warns people about this scam, saying what the man learned the hard way.
"If you have to send money to get money, it's not going to work," he said.
Police are investigating this incident, but victims said many of those calls were from overseas, which could make it hard to crack the case.
To report a scam to the Better Business Bureau, click here.
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