Help Me Hank: Help Me Hank! Sweepstakes mail

Look at all these letters. It seems that if you send in money, you'll get a prize. But what you'll really get, well, Jose Toro found that out the hard way.

Jose Toro
"It's a nuisance."

It started when he opened his mailbox and got a letter saying he was in the final stages of wining millions in a sweepstakes.

Jose Toro
"You hope you did win something."

Jose filled out the prize form and there was a catch. You had to mail in cash to claim your prize.

Jose Toro
"I sent them $10."

So what showed up in Jose's mailbox a few days later? Nope, not the prize, but another "prize" letter.

Jose Toro
"They sent me another one asking for $19."

So Jose sent in more cash but still got no prize, just more letters from other places.

Jose Toro
"They said that you're eligible to win something, but you have to keep on sending money."

And then still more letters arrived, all claiming to be from other sweepstakes.

Jose Toro
"They keep on sending more."

The letters kept coming and coming.

Jose Toro
"Every other day I get something like two, three, sometimes five."

Soon Jose's mailbox was full of mail.

Jose Toro
"I'm still waiting for my prize!"

Finally he realized there were no fabulous prizes, only fraudulent promises.

Jose Toro
"That's when I decided to call you."

We knew there wasn't a big prize. It's just a big scam to get your cash. And what's more, the moment you send in money they know you're, excuse us Jose, an easy mark and they'll sell your name and address to other such places.

Barbara Anthony, Federal Trade Commission
"Once your name is on the list, that's a valuable commodity for these sweepstakes scam artists, and you're gonna receive hundreds if not thousands of these things in the mail."

Here's the key to so-called sweepstakes: if you really, really won something, you never, never have to pay.

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"Are these even legal?"

Barbara Anthony, Federal Trade Commission
"If they want your money to win money, you're not gonna win. Nobody's gonna win. That's totally against the law."

Jose stopped sending money, so eventually the letters will stop too. But he doesn't want the same thing to happen to you if one of these arrives in your mailbox.

Jose Toro
"Just throw them away."

Ok, one more time, never ever send these places any money. If you do, you'll be out the cash, stuck with lots of junk mail and without a big prize.

(Copyright (c) 2006 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)