The FTC Is Mailing 204,408 More Checks Worth Over $4.4 Million to Publishers Clearing House Customers Who Cashed Their First Refund

A Publishers Clearing House customer who never cashed the first Federal Trade Commission check is not on the list for the second one. The agency says the new round goes only to people who accepted their first payment, and its refund page now shows 204,408 checks worth more than $4.4 million.

The FTC’s page does not say when the checks will be mailed, and it does not give a dollar amount for any one person. What it does say is that anyone who receives a check should cash it within 90 days.

Who is on the second-round list

The refunds trace back to a case the FTC brought against the sweepstakes marketer over its online ordering practices. According to the agency, the people who qualify are those who ordered a product from Publishers Clearing House after receiving and clicking one of the emails the FTC called deceptive. Not every PCH customer is eligible.

The second round narrows that group further. The FTC page says the 204,408 checks go to people who accepted their first payment. A report from The Money Overview adds that no claim is needed, so there is no form to file and no website where a payment can be requested.

The same report calculates an average of roughly $21.50 a check by dividing the total by the number of checks. That is arithmetic, not a figure published by the FTC. The agency’s page states neither a per-person amount nor a range, so the real amount on any single check may differ.

What the FTC says Publishers Clearing House did

The FTC alleged that the company misled people about how to enter its sweepstakes drawings. According to the agency’s refund page, the company implied that a purchase was necessary to win or would improve a person’s odds, and told some people their entries were incomplete when they were not.

The FTC also alleged that the company sent emails with deceptive subject lines, including some designed to look tax-related. It added surprise shipping and handling fees that raised order costs by an average of 40%, according to the agency, and charged customers to return products even though it described ordering as “risk-free.”

In its April 2025 announcement, the FTC said Publishers Clearing House had agreed to pay $18.5 million and to make substantial changes to its ecommerce operations. The agency said the company targeted older and lower-income consumers with claims that they could not enter sweepstakes without buying something.

How the first round compares, and who runs the program

The first round was announced on April 30, 2025. At that time the FTC said it was sending more than $18 million to 281,724 consumers, and that checks should be cashed within 90 days, as printed on the check.

The agency’s current refund page describes the April 2025 round as having resulted in more than $13.3 million in refunds. The page does not explain the difference from the earlier $18 million announcement, so readers comparing the two pages will see both numbers. The second round is smaller on both counts: 204,408 checks, compared with 281,724 consumers in the first announcement.

The FTC’s refunds index lists the Publishers Clearing House program as active and dated November 2026. The index does not show an amount and points to the program page for details.

The refund administrator is Rust Consulting, according to the FTC’s 2025 announcement, and the program page lists the administrator’s phone line as 1-888-516-0774.

A person who accepted the first payment but has moved since then is the most likely to have questions. The FTC’s pages do not describe a process for address changes, so the administrator’s line is the number the agency publishes for that kind of question.

Cashing the check, and spotting a fake one

Government refund programs are a regular hook for impersonators, and the FTC says so directly on its refunds index. The agency states that it will never threaten anyone, say money must be transferred to “get a refund,” or promise a prize.

Its Publishers Clearing House page repeats the point: the FTC says it will never demand money or make threats, and it advises people not to pay anyone who asks for a fee in exchange for a refund. It also advises against giving personal information to anyone who contacts a person about a refund.

In its 2025 announcement the agency put it this way: “The Commission never requires people to pay money or provide account information to get a refund.” A caller or message asking for a processing fee, gift cards or bank details does not match anything the FTC describes.

Suspected scams can be reported at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, the reporting site the FTC lists on both its refunds index and the Publishers Clearing House page.

The FTC’s instruction is short: if a check arrives, cash it within 90 days. The agency’s pages do not describe a second chance after the deadline passes.

Anyone who accepted the first payment and has not seen a second check can watch the FTC’s page for updates. As of Nov. 7, 2026, the page shows the round under November 2026 with no mailing date.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Donald Trung Quoc Don – Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0