Prize Offers: You Don’t Have to Pay to Play!
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel17.shtm

excerpt from FTC CONSUMER ALERT
A Dozen Ways to Protect Yourself
The next time you get a "personal" letter or telephone call telling you "it’s your lucky day," the Federal Trade Commission encourages you to remember that:

1.Legitimate sweepstakes don’t require you to pay or buy something to enter or improve your chances of winning, or to pay "taxes" or "shipping and handling charges" to get your prize.


If you have to pay to receive your "prize," it’s not a prize at all.

You have won a certified check for $150,000.00 "James Lincoln" was the caller. Sounded Indian or Middle-Eastern. Call 718-615-5377

My caller ID listed a "Private" number.  Caller identified himself as James Lincoln and claimed I had won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes for $350,000 (I never entered).  All I needed to do was send $399 for the registration fee and the certified check would be delivered by ABC by Sweepstakes and BBB representatives.  He insisted I write down his phone number and the names of the representatives.  I told him to remove my name from his caller list and to never call my number again.  I received a call like this last year from an Indian woman.