Prize Patrol surprises Durham resident with $15 million

Frances and Carl Ross with the Prize Patrol team.Photo byMia Khatib/Tribune

By Mia Khatib

mia.khatib@triangletribune.com

DURHAM — Publishers Clearing House’s Prize Patrol team surprised Durham resident Frances Ross Monday with a $15 million check, the largest prize of the year in the interactive media company’s free-to-play sweepstakes and contests.

PCH offers a range of products, digital entertainment and services to customers, and prizes are funded by company revenue. No purchase is required to play, and people can enter on their website, via mail or through the mobile application.

“I had seen it on TV before, but I never had thought that we would win,” Ross, 79, said. “We're gonna spend it on friends, family, church and retirement.”

Ross and her husband, Carl, said they have been enrolling in PCH games for more than 20 years and watching people win big is what kept them playing. Similarly, their neighbor Iris Pendergrass, 81, said she has been participating for decades and even won up to $1,000.

The Prize Patrol travels to winners’ doorsteps to award prizes of $10,000 and more with no notification. Anything less and the winner receives word by mail. But Ross said they’ve been getting phone calls recently from scammers claiming to be giving out “senior sweepstakes.”

“It’s free to play, free to enter, free to win. You never have to pay to claim a prize,” Prize Patrol member Howie Guja told The Tribune. “The trick with these scammers is they'll say you won, you just have to pay a tax upfront or remittance fees… unfortunately, they get to some people.”

With more than 10 million monthly visitors in PCH’s online game network, prizes are awarded nearly every five minutes. Winners are selected at random, and Guja said prizes vary from cars and smaller values to “forever” prizes where winners receive $5,000 a week for two lifetimes: their own and a person they choose at their death.

For many, these prizes can be life changing.

“I've been to houses where the power authority actually shows up to shut off their electric while we're at the house awarding the prize,” Guja said. “Most people, they need the money, and it’s really helpful to them.”

Mia Khatib, who covers affordable housing and gentrification, is a Report for America corps member.