Publishers Clearing House deceived consumers about their sweepstakes contests, FTC says

It’s illegal for a company to tell someone to pay to enter a sweepstakes contest, or that buying something increases their odds of winning. You might not be surprised if a fly-by-night contest promoter deceived people by saying these things. But would you expect a well-known company that’s been running sweepstakes for decades to deceive people?

The FTC says that Publishers Clearing House used language and designs on its website and in its email marketing that tricked consumers, including many older adults, into believing they had to buy things on the PCH website to enter a sweepstakes. Or that doing so would improve their chances of winning a prize.

Customers who did buy something on PCH.com were in for a few surprises. (And they didn’t involve someone arriving at their door with a giant check and a TV crew). The FTC says

• PCH hid shipping and handling fees that added an average of 40% to customers' orders.
• PCH's claims that orders were risk free were bunk. Customers had to pay the shipping costs to return merchandise.

As part of a settlement, PCH agreed to pay $18.5 million to provide refunds, among other things. Not every Publishers Clearing House customer will be eligible for a refund. Learn more about PCH refunds.

If you’re considering participating in a sweepstakes contest, here’s what to know:

• Real sweepstakes are free and by chance. It’s illegal to ask you to pay or buy something to enter.
• If you sign up for a contest, the promoters might sell your information to advertisers. If they do, you’re likely to see targeted ads online and get more junk mail, telemarketing calls, and spam email.
• Scammers try to trick you into believing you won a prize. Never share your financial information or pay fees, taxes, or customs duties to get a prize.

Learn more about recognizing prize and sweepstakes scams. And if you see a prize scam, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

This blog post was updated on July 6, 2023 with information about refunds.

Read Our Privacy Act Statement

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

Read Our Comment Policy

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

• We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
• We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
• We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
• We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

I have been ordering from publisher clearing house since around 1989. And I always would try to buy at least one thing. Because they did say buying would help chances. Ha I have never one big. I finally stopped dealing with them all together.They are SCAMMERS.

In reply to I have been ordering from… by Diana Grindle

I have gotten sucked into publishers clearing house for years paid so much ordering magazines because they said i was a winner. its a scam

In reply to I have been ordering from… by Diana Grindle

I agree they always emailed me saying im the next winner and they are on their way never show up,

EMAILS AND LETTERS THAT CLAIMS WE ARE WINNERS IN OUR HOUSEHOLD AND ENTER BEFORE THE DEADLINE.

In reply to I have been ordering from… by Diana Grindle

I bought since 1989 they said if you don't. Your odds of winning are 0. Or toss your sweepstakes in trash..

I have been playing and buying since 1992 will I be getting any thing back?

In reply to I have been playing and… by Sylvia Session

Ive got back a few things from this PCH