{"id":127474,"date":"2026-03-02T15:38:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127474\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T15:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T15:38:06","slug":"whitehall-police-warning-residents-about-sweepstakes-scam-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127474\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitehall police warning residents about sweepstakes scam \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">WHITEHALL, Pa. \u2014 The Whitehall Borough Police Department is warning residents about a sweepstakes scam after receiving several reports of fraudulent activity targeting the community this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Scammers are contacting individuals with claims that they have won a prize, then asking for personal information or payment to secure the winnings. The Police Department issued the alert to help residents identify high-pressure tactics and prevent financial loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The Police Department identified several specific warning signs commonly used in these schemes. Residents should be wary of any notification claiming they won a contest they never entered. Scammers also frequently employ high-pressure tactics to rush individuals into making decisions before they can verify the claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Official prize notifications do not require a recipient to provide banking information or make a payment to receive a reward. The department noted that any request for money or personal data to claim a prize is a significant indicator of a fraudulent operation. Residents are advised to never send money or gift cards to unverified sources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The department emphasized that residents should verify all questionable notifications through official channels. If an individual is contacted by someone claiming to be from a sweepstakes organization, the Police Department recommends avoiding any response until the validity of the prize can be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Residents who are unsure if a prize notification is legitimate should contact the Whitehall Police Department at 412-884-1100 before responding to the sender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHITEHALL, Pa. \u2014 The Whitehall Borough Police Department is warning residents about a sweepstakes scam after receiving several&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59407,16392,10906,34201,21094,16393,1126,15262,44144,4813,52779,59408,59409,7624,7683,11561,86,1084,6234,5679,1820,837,26771,6235,1399,3858,22080,2008,5684,73,75,74,15268,43510,2918,5692,6827,32593,29949,8272,503,59410,34057,34058,40536,59411,22281,34061,38152,7212,11580,38910,15276],"class_list":["post-127474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-businesspeople","tag-businessperson","tag-career","tag-casual","tag-cellphone","tag-communication","tag-company","tag-confident","tag-creative","tag-design","tag-entrepreneur","tag-ethnic","tag-flexible","tag-freelance","tag-hand","tag-holding","tag-home","tag-house","tag-inside","tag-internet","tag-job","tag-lifestyle","tag-lockdown","tag-male","tag-man","tag-message","tag-modern","tag-office","tag-online","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-professional","tag-remote","tag-small-business","tag-smartphone","tag-standing","tag-startup","tag-study","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-telework","tag-text","tag-texting","tag-typing","tag-unrecognizable","tag-virtual","tag-wifi","tag-wireless","tag-work","tag-worker","tag-working","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}