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It's the time of year for millions of people to enter sweepstakes in anticipation of the big winner being announced next month, but they should be wary of scams resembling big prize giveaways.

For years, national TV has shown prize patrols tracking down lucky winners and handing them oversized checks worth a fortune. Consumers may wonder if those winners are real, and the actual answer is sort of a "good news, bad news" scenario.

The good news is that they can be real. In the case of Publishers Clearing House, independent audits and regulatory agencies have confirmed people do receive the money.

The bad news, as an Ohio statistics professor once calculated, is that the odds of winning the big multimillion-dollar prize in the first round are about one in 290 million.

By comparison, the odds of getting struck by lightning are much higher — about one in 1.5 million.

While mail is still popular, these days sweepstakes have migrated to the Internet. Players can up their odds by going on to the Publishers Clearing House website and making multiple entries.

Interestingly enough, the same rules that apply to the mail version also apply online.

"It should say that there is no purchase necessary to play and that your odds should be the same whether you've purchased an item or not," says Donna Harris of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

At this time of year, postal inspectors stay busy watching for look-alike sweepstakes scams trying to cash in on the Publishers Clearing House excitement.

The scams are sophisticated, but they can easily detected because they all want money.

"If you have to pay to enter a sweepstakes or purchase anything or pay shipping and handling or processing fees, it's a scam. You should never pay to play," says Harris.

To report a bogus sweepstakes offer or any mail scam, contact the United States Postal Inspection Service at postalinspectors.uspis.gov.