COEUR d'ALENE - A Coeur d'Alene woman told police she was threatened by a caller after she refused to pay a fee to collect a sweepstakes prize.

The senior citizen, who asked to remain anonymous, said she received a call around 8 a.m. Thursday. A man told her she had won $3 million in a drawing, but needed $299 for fees up front.

"I hung up," she said.

The caller was persistent and continued to ring back.

"You've got to listen to me. This is for real," he said.

The man gave the woman what he called a secret identification code to claim her prize.

The woman hung up again, but the caller dialed her again, this time saying because she had the secret code, he was going to send a detective to her house and she would be prosecuted.

"He mentioned that over and over again," she said.

The man was threatening and persistent, she added.

There was only one way, he said, to avoid arrest: Pay the $299 fee and accept the $3 million.

The victim said she knew this was a scam, but "it made me nervous with him constantly calling on my phone," so she called police.

The calls stopped.

The woman said she has received many scam calls and letters, but this was first including a threat.

"They must think I've got money," she said, laughing.

In another scam, a Hayden man lost nearly $4,000.

He told the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department he got a call Monday from a person who said he had won $385,000. He was told he needed to transfer $3,850 to a bank account to pay the taxes on his winnings.

The 83-year-old man did so, then received additional calls telling him he needed to send more money to receive his prize.

When he did not receive his supposed winnings, the victim then called authorities to report the theft of his money.