Newspaper Page Text
The True Citizen, Wednesday, May 5, 2021 — Page 9A
“Winners” lose big to imposters posing as Publishers Clearing House
KELVIN COLLINS
Yes, Publishers Clearing
House imposters are back at it
again. They never really left,
but consumers are again hear
ing, “You’ve won - a new car!
Millions of dollars! Cash for
life!” The crazy thing is you
don’t even recall entering the
contest. Con artists continually
pose as Publishers Clearing
House and other sweepstakes
and lottery companies to play
on our desire to “get rich
quick.”
Here’s how the scam works.
You receive a phone call, text
message, email, social media
message or even a letter in
the mail claiming you’ve won
millions of dollars or another
high value prize through Pub
lishers Clearing House. The
correspondence seems real.
It’s complete with official seals
and contact information for the
Mother
etched in our brains,” Lisa
says. “Good news one day
and bad news the next. Our
last conversation with her
before she had to go on the
ventilator was filled with ‘we
love you’ and promises to her
that we would take care of
her best friend and sidekick,
Mollie, whom she loved with
every part of her heart. She
told us to tell her grandbabies
that they were the loves of her
life. It was the last time we
heard her voice.”
In mid-December, the doc
tors called to say they’d allow
her two daughters to come see
her. “That would end up being
our goodbye visit, and deep in
our hearts we knew that while
we where there, even though
the words had not been of
ficially said,” the girls recall.
“We held her hand, touched
her face, cried a little, and
most importantly, turned on
her favorite songs and sang
them to her as we tried to ac
cept the fact that this would
probably be the last time we
would see her on Earth.”
Barbara Collier passed
away on Dec. 22, 2020, just
two days before Kristy’s
birthday and three days be
fore Christmas. The sisters
received more than 700 so
cial media messages or texts
where people shared their
thoughts and memories of her.
“They most all commented on
what a sweetheart she was
and how precious of a person
she was,” Kristy remembers.
“We often comment on how
overwhelmed she would have
been to read all the kind things
people had to say about her.”
Through their grief and
tears, the sisters sat down
with us and shared some of
their own personal memories
as they prepare for their first
Mother’s Day without her.
What are some special
Mother’s Day traditions you
remember?
Our favorite Mother’s Day
is the year we went to A.H.
Stephen's State Park. We
took China, crystal, silver,
candles and heirloom quilts.
We had chicken salad, fruit
Service
During busy times, when stress
is high, the crew sticks together
and works through it. The
loyalty stretches beyond the
boundaries of the workplace.
Recently, an employee suf
fered a house fire.
“She lost everything,”
Brown said. “We pitched in to
help her.”
Another employee became
displaced. Everyone pitched
in for a temporary motel room.
They found her a place to live
and pitched in for furnishings
and necessities. They helped
contest organizer. It typically
lists affiliation with legitimate
organizations, such as Better
Business Bureau, the IRS, the
FDIC, and major retailers.
The catch? You are respon
sible for paying shipping and
handling, insurance, taxes, and
other fees before you can claim
your prize. Scammers may
pressure you to pay quickly,
claiming that if the fees aren’t
paid in this specific way and
right on time, you’ll forfeit
your prize money.
A few thousand dollars may
not sound like much compared
to the millions you’ve just won.
However, con artists keep ask
ing you, the “lucky winner,” to
pay again and again. But it’s
never enough to get the funds
transferred. Of course, in the
end, your prize money never
existed.
The real Publishers Clearing
House is a BBB Accredited
and chocolate and ate and
played with our Mimi (Betty
Daniel Cooley), her mother.
A Mother’s Day never
passed without us eating a
special meal together some
where. Either cooking her
favorites at home or going to a
restaurant that she loved. She
didn’t care, as long as she was
surrounded by her family, her
grandchildren, Dalton, Collier
and Ashley.
Her gift was usually a some
thing for her yard because she
loved being outdoors on her
patio or front porch.
Last Mother’s Day we had
a cookout at the pool. She
loved celebrating at the pool
and watching her family enjoy
themselves. Her special angel,
Darrell Johnson, who treated
her with such love and affec
tion during her final years,
always made sure that she felt
like a princess each and every
day. She served as his second
mother since he had lost his
in 2012.
When we became mothers
ourselves, it made celebrat
ing Mother’s Day even more
special. She loved her grand
children more than life itself,
and she taught us to be special
to our own children by the way
she loved us.
What made your mom
unique?
Mother put great effort into
family memories. She made
you feel so special anytime you
were around her. Our mother
was so considerate of others,
and there wasn’t anything she
wouldn’t do for those that she
loved. After our Daddy passed
away in April of 2014, we
made a special effort to make
sure she was not alone when
ever possible. She wanted to
stay in the home they had made
together, but we made sure to
include her in anything and ev
erything we ever did. The grief
of losing our Daddy was very
hard for her. We shared in the
caring of our mother since our
Daddy’s death in 2014. She
went everywhere with us and
we loved it that way.
How did you know just
how much she enjoyed being
a mother?
her with gas money so she
could get to work.
“That’s important because I
believe we should be a family,”
Brown said. “When we are
helping someone like that, it
let’s them know that we care.”
More than a manager, her
mentorship has made a dif
ference for the people she
supervises. Employee Mike
Williams described Brown as
reliable and helpful.
“Team work makes the
dream work,” Employee Cort-
ney Way said of what she has
Business with a good rating,
and it never asks people to pay
upfront fees for anything. The
company is frequently mim
icked by scammers because of
its reputation for real prizes.
TIPS TO AVOID
THESE SCAMS
• Reach out to Publishers
Clearing House: If you are
contacted by a scammer im
personating PCH, report it
by calling (800) 392-4190.
Also, PCH provides a tollfree
customer service number (800-
645-9242), which consumers
can call at any time to check
on suspicious behavior.
• Be wary of unsolicited cor
respondence. If you receive a
notice out of the blue and can’t
recall entering the contest, it’s
likely a scam. Look for typos
and misspellings. They are tell
tale signs of a scam.
Continued from front
She always cooked meals
with everyone's special dishes.
Her love was just so apparent
in the way she looked at us and
treated us. She was famous
for sending us early morning
texts, sometimes with surpris
ing things she had learned to
do on her phone or Facebook,
wishing us a good day and
also letting us know that she
was awake and ready to tackle
another day.
What is a piece of advice
she gave you that you’ll never
forget?
Lisa: Be honest and be a
lady.
Kristy: She always told me
to do what made me happy and
to always trust my gut when I
was struggling with a decision
to make.
What is a time you remem
ber when she could’ve pulled
the “I told you so” card but
didn’t?
She never had to say that
‘cause she had a “mother’s
look” that told us what we
needed to realize. It was a look
that said, “I love you anyway!”
She loved it when we told her
that sometimes we opened our
mouth to our own children and
things she said to us as chil
dren came out. She would just
laugh that wonderful distinc
tive chuckle she had.
What will Mother’s Day be
like for you guys this year?
We will gather for a family
dinner with our own children
and celebrate being their moth
ers, but it will be our first
without our own mother, which
is extremely overwhelming to
think about. She was a precious
angel, and we were so lucky
to be raised by her. To tell you
the truth, Mother’s Day will
feel a little less happy this year
because celebrating her and
making her feel loved was our
favorite thing to do. But know
ing that she is resting in perfect
peace in heaven is comforting.
We would like to remind
people who still have their
mommas to not waste one op
portunity to show them how
much you love and appreciate
them. Call them each and every
day. We are never promised
tomorrow.
Continued from 2A
learned from Brown.
It’s a 2-way street. Brown
plans employee appreciation
days beyond what the franchise
requires.
With no intention of ending
her employment anytime soon,
Brown is always looking for a
new face on which to influence
a smile.
“We are hiring,” Brown said.
“We also welcome the commu
nity’s insight on how to make
the place better.”
• Never pay fees to claim a
prize. You should never have
to pay any fees upfront before
receiving winnings. Not even
taxes.
• Never wire money or use
prepaid debit/gift cards. If you
are asked to use these transfer
methods in order to get a prize
or any other large sum of mon
ey; that is a major red flag. It’s
difficult to track these types of
transactions, so you will have
little to no way of getting your
money back.
• You have to give personal
information. Anytime some
one tries to get your bank
account number, Social Secu
rity Number or other sensitive
information, that should be an
automatic red flag. There is
also no need to access finan
cial information, like a credit
card number in response to a
sweepstakes promotion.
• Don’t fall for ‘too-good-to-
be-true’ prizes. When you are
offered a large sum of money,
there is always a catch. Scam
mers attempt to make it sound
easy to claim your prize. The
reality is it is very unlikely that
someone will give away large
sums of money with no strings
attached.
• Keep track of any contests
you enter. You can’t win a
contest you didn’t enter. If you
often enter contests and sweep-
stakes, keep track of them and
check them out thoroughly.
This will help you spot a fake.
You can find more informa
tion on spotting a Publisher
Clearing House scam on their
website’s fraud information
center at info.pch.com.
To learn more about sweep-
stakes scams and how they
work, see BBB’s study on these
scams at BBB.org/ScamStud-
ies. If you’ve been the victim of
a scam, please report it to www.
BBB.org/ScamTracker. By
sharing your experience, you
can help others avoid falling
victim to similar scams.
Kelvin Collins is president
& CEO of the Better Business
Bureau serving the Fall Line
Corridor
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
A petition for zoning amendment has been filed with the Burke
County Board of Zoning Appeals, requesting the zoning a portion
of this property: 154 Gresham Rd. Keysville, GA (Map-Parcel
: 063-038) be changed from zone A1 to zone CC _, for the
purpose of commercial development. A public hearing will be held
at The Burke County Court House, located at 602 North Liberty St.
Waynesboro GA. 30830 on 05/25/2021 at 7:00 p.m. All those in
favor of or objecting to this petition should be present to voice their
support or objection.
For more information call:
Burke County Planning Commission
(706) 554-8758
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
A petition for zoning amendment has been filed with the Burke
County Board of Zoning Appeals, requesting the zoning a portion
of this property: 105 Spring Valley Rd. Waynesboro GA (Map-
Parcel : 074-017) be changed from zone R1 to zone CG_, for
the purpose of commercial development. A public hearing will
be held at The Burke County Court House, located at 602 North
Liberty St. Waynesboro GA. 30830 on 05/25/2021 at 7:00 p.m. All
those in favor of or objecting to this petition should be present to
voice their support or objection.
For more information call:
Burke County Planning Commission
(706) 554-8758
—GEORGIA
m Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection Division
PUBLIC NOTICE
Notice of application for a Land Application System Permit to apply treated wastewater to a
Land Treatment Site in the State of Georgia
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has received a new application for the reissuance
of an existing LAS permit. Having reviewed such application, the Environmental Protection
Division proposes to issue for a maximum term of five years the following permit subject to specific
pollutant limitations and special conditions:
City of Keysville, Post Office Box 159, Keysville, Georgia 30816, LAS Permit No. GAJ020155,
for the Keysville Water Pollution Control Plant located at Hepzibah-Keysville Road, Keysville,
Georgia 30815. Up to 0.0596 MGD of treated wastewater is being land applied on a dedicated
site in Burke County in the Savannah River Basin.
Persons wishing to comment upon or object to the proposed determinations are invited to submit
same in writing to the EPD address below, or via e-mail at EPDcomments@dnr. ea,gov. no later than
thirty (30) days after this notification. If you choose to e-mail your comments, please be sure to
include the words “LAS permit reissuance - Keysville Water Pollution Control Plant - GAJ020155
(Burke County)" in the subject line to ensure that your comments will be forwarded to the correct
staff. All comments received prior to or on that date will be considered in the formulation of final
determinations regarding the application. A public hearing may be held where the EPD Director
finds a significant degree of public interest in a proposed permit or group of permits. Additional
information regarding public hearing procedures is available by wnting the Environmental
Protection Division.
Individual draft permits, applications, supporting documents, and fact sheets arc available on EPD’s
website accessible through the publicly available Georgia EPD Online System (GEOS) at:
https://geos.epd.georgia.gov/GAGEOS/Public,'GovF.ntShared/'Pages'Main/Login.aspx
by searching for Submittal No: 455218
A copy of the fact sheet or the draft permit is also available by writing the Environmental Protection
Division. A copying charge of 10 cents per page will be assessed. The permit application, draft
permit, comments received, and other information arc available for review at 2 MLK, Jr. Dr., Suite
1152E, Atlanta, GA 30334, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
For additional information contact: Benoit Causse, Wastewater Regulatory Program, phone (404)
463-1511 or e-mail henoit.causse@dnr.ga.gov.