An old sweepstakes TV commercial once promised, “Only Publishers Clearing House can make you so rich, so fast!”
But, as some unlucky winners discovered this year, the opposite is also true: Publishers Clearing House (PCH) can make your fortune disappear just as quickly.
That’s what happened to John Wyllie, a 61-year-old Oregon man who won $5,000 a week for life from the PCH Prize Patrol in 2012.
According to NBC affiliate KGW8 [1], Wyllie received an annual check for $260,000 every January. The money let him retire and buy a house on six acres in scenic Bellingham, Washington. But this year, the checks suddenly stopped. A few months later, Wyllie learned why: PCH had filed for bankruptcy without warning him or…