She’s back!  Actually, she has never left.   I have been writing about scams related to Mavis Wanczyk for nine years but recently I have received emails from Scamicide readers telling me about various new incarnations of a variety of scams that share the same hook which is that Mavis Wanczyk is giving money away to lucky people.  Many of you may not remember the name of Mavis Wanczyk, but she was the lucky winner of a 758 million dollar Powerball drawing in 2017. Not long after she claimed her prize, a scam started appearing in which many people received emails with the message line referring to the Mavis  Wanczyk Cash Grant. The email indicated that you were chosen to receive a large cash grant from Mavis  Wanczyk. All the lucky strangers receiving the emails had to do was provide personal information in order to qualify for the grant. In addition, phony social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were also set up in Ms. Wanczyk’s name through which people were contacted with the same phony offer of free money informing them that in order to qualify for the grant they merely needed to provide personal information.

But not all Mavis Wanczyk scams involve Mavis Wanczyk.  Recently a Scamicide reader told me about receiving a message purportedly from someone who identified himself as George Linda Dokken who said he was a philanthropist who would send a “grant” of $50,000 to the lucky Scamicide reader, but required a payment of a few hundred dollars in gift cards before sending the grant money.  After paying the requested amount demands for additional payments kept coming, but no grant money was ever paid.

TIPS

It is difficult to win a lottery you have entered. It is impossible to win one that you have never entered and neither lottery winners, nor anyone else is sending out messages through the Internet offering free money to anyone who responds with personal information. Never give out personal information that can make you vulnerable to identity theft unless you have absolutely verified that the party requesting the personal information is legitimate and has a legitimate need for the information or payments to receive a supposedly free gift.

Another red flag that this was a scam was the request for payment using gift cards.  A request for a gift card payment is always a scam.

Finally and most importantly, remember neither Mavis Wanczyk nor any other lottery winner or philanthropist is giving away free money to strangers.

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