Georgia Man Loses $80K In Publisher’s Clearing House Scam

Scams are happening every single day, and scammers are finding more ways to trick people. Like this Georgia man who loses $80K in a Publisher's Clearing House scam.

The man is from Roswell, Georgia.  According to the Alpharetta Roswell Herald, he alerted police about the scam on April 10th.  He apparently lost around $80,000 after believing he had won $10.5 million and a car in the scam.

The man was contacted by someone claiming to be with Publisher's Clearing House.  Then, the victim was asked to send money to cover taxes and other expenses. The man did send money, which totaled $120,000 before he realized he'd been misled.  In all, he was able to cancel $40,000 worth of the checked and has given police the names and addresses of where he sent the checks.

Catalytic converter theft isn't a new issue.  It's been a threat to anyone who owns a car for years.  But, according to Carfax, there are way more thefts than may have been reported.  Their data shows as many as 153,000 thefts in the U.S. in 2022.  And each state seems to have vehicles that are more likely to be a target than others.  Below, we'll look at the top 5 most targeted cars in Georgia.

It seems no one is immune to catalytic converter theft either.  Parking lots, car dealerships... thieves are boldly looking for these crimes of opportunity.  It wasn't long ago that even the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile had its catalytic converter stolen.

And the bad news is, if yours is stolen, it's not a cheap replacement.  It can run from $2,000 to $3,000.

Catalytic converters contain valuable metals like platinum, palladium, and rhodium.  The metals are expensive, in high demand, and limited in supply. For a standard catalytic converter, thieves can make cash in to make anywhere from $25 to $300.  But the ones from hybrid vehicles are even more valuable and can sell for up to $1,400.

Year over year, the most targeted vehicle list stayed mostly the same as the previous year, but the Toyota Tacoma and Ford Explorer did see a bigger increase over the last year.

Now let's take a look how Georgia's most targeted cars compare to the national list! A few of these vehicles saw pretty significant jumps in thefts from 2021 to 2022. These are considered the top cars targeted in the South, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.