CHICOPEE, Mass. — Police are again warning people about multiple fake social media accounts created by scammers pretending to be the city's Powerball winner.
"Don't fall for this scam. Don't give personal information," Michael Wilk, Chicopee Police public information officer, posted on the department's social media accounts.
In a brief search Wilk said he found more than 30 fake Instagram accounts as well as a handful of Twitter accounts and Facebook accounts. Nearly all of the accounts are using some version of the name of city resident Mavis Wanczyk, who won the record $758 million Powerball pot last week and took home $336.3 million after taxes.
The fake accounts are being used by scammers trying to take advantage of people and get their personal information. None are tied to Wanczyk, Wilk said.
"We are well aware of many fake accounts being created on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram stating they are Mavis Wanczyk and that following and answering private messages will result in you getting money," Wilk posted on the Police Department Facebook page.
"Please, do not fall for a scam. Don't fall for the 'like and share and I'll give you cash' post. (These) are bait accounts. You will be lured in, and then when told you have 'won' you will have to give up your personal info., bank info., etc., and you will end up losing money, not gaining," Wilk said in an additional post.
Some of the fake Instagram accounts have names such as maviswanczyk7m, official.maviswanczyk and one is maviswanczyk.758mil with a comment underneath saying "Giving Away Money."
Some of the accounts are targeting college students by pledging help with books and tuition, Wilk said.
There are other scams tied to the lottery winner as well. On Tuesday Wilk said someone contacted him with a sob story that was clearly fake and asked him to contact Wanczyk requesting money for them. Wilk said he refused and hung up.
I never even answer my phone if I don't know who is on the caller ID...but of course they can change the number to any number they want to now so you have to be careful even then but if I do answer & don't know them before they can say the "cheerful" hello I hang up!
On one of my email accounts I am getting spammers using my own email address to send me messages. I wouldn't block it for a little while but then I blocked it to see if it would keep me from receiving mail & it didn't so that helps a little to block all of the spammers....I have another account now and so far none have gotten to me on that one.
stuff like this never ceases to amaze me
as for spammers in one's email
I can say its been a a good while,
since I had gotten an email from a some lady with cancer,some bank executive and etc etc
I still get drug related scams though
I think they'll arrest this jackpot winner who was a scam person!
What a shocker!!! Really. I guess people believe everything they hear and see. If people actually do send money just like that ALS challenge thing then they're dumber than they think they are.
I am so glad I am NOT on facebook anymore. These scammers have nothing better to do. Posting on different pages unreal.
That didn't take long.
Just another reason for anonymity.
Huh!!! What do you mean arrest? Although I know where you're going with this. There are different things about this lottery winner and the way she came out about it.
.
The sole winner took home only $336 million out of a $750 million jackpot?
Come on. . . .
Could this have been improved if she'd contacted financial advisors/lawyers???
.
I use Gmail exclusively, where I have dozens accounts created over the span of about 20 years. Unfortunately, my main email account does get considerable spam, but creating filters has helped. On another gmail account, I get none, I mean 0 (zero) spammails. I think this has to do with having given out my main account to even some "friends".
Sometimes, that can't be helped.
I rely on Gmail's filter component, which I can customize in any number of ways.
Because even some "friends" really don't care, even if you've known them 30 years.
It's sad.
Probably. And, she still owes around $70,000,000 in Federal taxes if she doesn't get some financial advice now, or at least before the end of the year.
been using my original hotmail acct for a goood bit b4 google was born
I've learned one can't have enough filters or be carefull enough
specially these days
The $758 million jackpot was based on an annuity, but the winner took the cash value. By law State and Federal taxes are deducted from the cash value and there is nothing an army of financial advisers/lawyers can do to prevent that.
Thank you for being the voice of reason and validity!
On another note a famous sweepstakes was set
To announce its winner today..Wasn't me :(
No PCH this time...
There is little difference between these crooks & the Jamaican scammers. The Jamaicans tell you, you won, and now need to send them money first, in order for them to " release" your winnings.
These characters are asking you for your SS # etc, in order for them to break into your saving & bank accounts.
Too much info. Dozens of accts. Nobody needs to know.
Yep. Wow. This is why my parents who love playing big games more than me, say, A state should not be able to force us
to:
-give our last name.
-Only "initials" and the county/city,state,of where we played and won pb mm or cash-five ya know."
I agree. Sad to say, there are crazy's out here.and i am praying she is safe after this,and move away with an unlisted # too.
God bless her.and her family.
While I believe in being able to remain anonymous, the state does NOT FORCE you to give your name or other information. You CHOOSE to play and those are the rules. If one truly wants to remain anonymous in a state that does not allow it, one should simply NOT PLAY.
I think a couple of people forgot about their insistance this was her fb page and those were her friends and her son's pic.....since "pictures don't lie."
Me too ! Those emails are usually just spoofing your email address. Wait till you get a call from your own phone #. I know people who got calls from #666. Lol
Great ideas!
The problem we have with some people, is that they simply have to tell the world everything about themselves, going on FB,or wherever, contacting people, letting them know their likes & dislikes.Loving chinese food, tangy beef broccoli, wonton soup and the rest of that crap that is served out there. Oh yeah, letting people know that they going on vacation: Hey thieves, we will be away for three weeks, starting on the 8th,please ransack our home. Who needs to know all that? It makes people a target the minute they divulge information, that should be private.Scammers love information, which is one of the reason, it has brought us to this.
Reminds me of a guy at work (who came here from Afghanistan when he was a young teen) who loves FB.
I asked him one day why in the world would you want to tell the whole world all about yourself? He just shrugged.
Fact is, he's a freaking social butterfly. Always talking about his new car, his new refrigerator, he never shuts up.
That too. The other thing that gets to me is seeing " pedestrians crossing at a stoplight with their faces buried in their phones along with headphones", totally oblivious to their surrounding. What if a driver loses their brakes? I can't recall the last time l saw anyone walking across an intersection and being aware of where they were.
Went off on the dirt road a lil..sorry.
I was sending an email to an LP friend of mine just now and saw I had a new email in my spam folder.
Mavis Wanczyk Foundation <test1@combinabpmnet.com>
Re: Donation
Greetings To You,
My Name is Mavis wanczyk , the winner of the Power ball jackpot of $ $758.7 million in the AUGUST 24, 2017, My jackpot was a gift from God to me hence my Entire family/foundation has AGREED to do this. My foundation is donating $500,000.00USD to you. please contac maviswanczyk123@gmail.com for full details and please accept this token as a gift from me and my family.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/23/news/powerball-700-million-jackpot/index.html
Best Regards,
Mavis Wanczyk
I looked at the source of the original email and found this IP#:
182.71.169.4
A quick search gave me this information when I looked up the domain:
Hostname: mx2.combinabpmnet.com
Domain: combinabpmnet.com
Organization: Bharti Airtel
Location: Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, India
I have a Blogger blog and like to make fun of and post the spam I get so the spambots will gather up the email addresses the next time they trawl and then the spammer- scammers will get spammed w/ scams.
Well this is what happens when your goal is to become a major international celebrity when you win a large jackpot. This idiot should have claimed under a trust or LLC if possible instead of trying to play Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, etc.
You cannot claim with a trust or llc in a number if states. I don't think she was trying to play celebrity like Cynthia Stafford. Mavis just got too caught up in her win and should have said nothing more than she was thrilled and no one should contact me again after this press conference.
Re: Facebook,
If their is a shadow government (yeah, sure 'if') they don't have to put any effort into gathering dossiers of people on FB, those people have already don it for them.
You have to wait until you file your tax return to mitigate your tax burden!
Lol Use a fake name. Remember Comey was on twitter under a pseudonym.
Some guy had a thing on Facebook saying his system will win you the lottery (not Steve Player or that other FL fellows). I wrote and sure and I have a bridge for sale. That tipped me off that he was a foreign entity because he wrote back and didn't understand what I meant.
Sure miss those fake IRS calls, never 'lucked' out to receive any lottery ones.
Yes, but she can do this after the fact. The lottery only withholds 25% for federal taxes so she is going to owe a lot more asap. I would offset it with contributions to charities, etc. to limit the remaining fed taxes owed.
Exactly!
And remember, the winner still owes another 14.6% in taxes...
(only 25% in federal taxes are taken at the time of the win; total federal tax is 39.6%)
Wow...
And I love that you were able to search out more info on the domain and the scammers are getting spammed!!!
Thank you for clarifying the tax situation. Never understood why more federal taxes were to be taken out AGAIN.
Too bad their Prez wouldn't change the law to benefit folks who are lucky enough to hit the big one.
Bleudog101, Here is something to help you calculate the end result after you pay all taxes owed to the IRS. But it does not count your State taxes.
For example, use Power Ball's numbers for Wednesday 9/6/2017 Multiply the Cash Value by.604 $52,800,000.00 X .604 = $31,891,200.00
Why use .604? If you add .396 which is the total amount of Federal taxes to the .604 you will get 1 or 100%.
.396 is the same as 39.6% .604 is the same as 60.4% 39.6% + 60.4 % = 100 %.
Of course, you will be able to afford a CPA to verify all of the above.
Thanks music*. Math will never be my forte and envy those like yourself that can figure things like this out.
Was contemplating a trip to Tahoe shortly...but I think I'll stay put. Thinking of you guys with that huge fire in the LA area.
I don't use social media accounts because I don't want to get into random arguments with strangers. When I was a kid once my brother told me to look out the window. I said why what's out there. He said there's a giant pink elephant. When I looked and didn't see a giant pink elephant, he called me gullible. That's my lesson to anyone believing scammers. Don't look for giant pink elephants.