People in Switzerland who lost money on a sweepstakes scam will be getting some of their money back.
In 2013, the US company Next-Gen bilked millions of people around the world of money in a sweepstakes scam where the victims were promised a large cash prize in exchange for a small up-front fee. Needless to say, none of the «winners», which included Swiss citizens, received the promised prize money.
Personalized mailers were sent to the victims which promised prizes of up to $2 million. The fees to claim the bogus prizes ranged from 9 dollars to $139.99, which some consumers paid several times before realizing the scam, according to the FTC.
While they didn't win the sweepstakes, they did win a settlement and will be refunded some of the money they lost thanks to a legal proceeding initiated in 2018 by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to a report from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).
Nearly $25 Million to be Returned
In 2019, Next-Gen agreed to pay several million US dollars to settle the case. Now, the FTC will be refunding nearly $25 million to the victims, including Swiss citizens, notifying SECO of the action this month.
According to an interactive dashboard from the FTC, total payments of $397,000 have been made to 1,290 people in Switzerland.
The FTC will be in touch with people entitled to refunds to help process them, with a deadline of October 17 to claim the refunds.
