Hayden woman warns of 'convincing' scammers

COEUR d’ALENE — Elva Parvin is nobody’s fool. Not even under a threat that her life might be in danger.

The Hayden woman received a call Saturday morning from someone claiming to be with Publisher’s Clearing House, who told her he had great news, not to get too excited, and perhaps she should sit down.

Parvin, immediately suspicious, listened to what this man named “Dave” had to say.

“I was going along with them,” she said.

Dave explained that Parvin was the winner of $21 million in the sweepstakes. An attorney would call back with details, he said, and sure enough, there was another call.

“Did you receive anything from Publishers Clearing House declaring you as a winner?” the alleged attorney asked.

Nope, Parvin said.

That was no problem, the caller said. Next came about 10 pages of faxed legal papers outlining her prize and the legal details, and noting she would need to sign and return them.

Oh, by the way, there was this issue of $35,000 that had to be paid up front, a “federal thing," to take care of taxes before she could have the $21 million. All she had to do was wire the money into an account.

They assured her the winnings would soon be in her hands.

Parvin, who has lived in the area more than two decades, wasn’t buying it.

Her daughter works in the fraud-detection industry and has long warned her mom about such schemes designed to part her from her hard-earned money.

“Boy, I knew that was a scam right there,” she said.

“Look, I don’t have $35,000,” she told them, which prompted the callers to offer a number of ways she might get it because they didn’t want her to miss out on the big prize.

Parvin said she would need to contact her attorney, and was quickly warned by the caller not to do that for fear word would get out about her winnings.

“Everybody will take advantage of you,” the caller said.

Parvin insisted she wasn’t interested.

“I’m not going to pay anybody,” she said, as she hung up.

Monday morning, the calls started again.

This time, Parvin asked for a phone number of the federal building where she was to wire the $35,000, and they gave her one. She called it and a woman answered.

“Is this federal building in Hayden?” Parvin asked.

Yes, she was told.

“What’s the address?”

The woman paused, put Parvin on hold, came back and said she couldn’t give her an address locally, as the building was really in Boise.

At that point, Parvin said she would have to do “a little bit of checking around.”

Don't do that, the woman said.

“Your life could be in danger,” she said.

Parvin hung up. She searched for and found an old receipt from Publishers Clearing House and called it. She got someone there on the line, explained what was going on, and was told it was, indeed, a scam.

“Don’t do anything," the person advised.

Her daughter, too, told her it was a fraud.

Parvin said that while she lost nothing but time, the scammers were convincing and persistent. She called The Press Monday because she feared other elderly folks might fall for it.

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said Monday it had not received reports of this specific scam going around the area. But in general, anyone who receives calls telling them they won prize money, but needs to pay fees up front, should never do so. Never give out personal financial information to callers. They point out the old saying, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

AARP says: “Don’t pay registration or shipping charges to get a supposed free product or prize. Such fees are ploys to get your payment information.”