A U.S. postal worker is being commended Friday for her quick thinking in helping an 81-year-old woman from falling for a scam a third time.

Police say the 81-year-old received a phone call telling her she won $5.5 million, but needed to send money in order to claim the prize. They say the woman sent two separate $500 money orders via express mail to an address in Queens.

When postal worker Carol Toal saw that the same woman was sending money to Queens for a third time she thought something wasn't right.

"It just seemed odd to me that she was sending money to Astoria express mail," says Toal. "So I just said to her is this your family member? And she said I don't know who I'm sending it to. So I said are you sending this to Publishers Clearing House? And she said yes I'm supposed to be winning money. And I said to her you never have to pay to win money and I said there's something wrong here."

This isn't the first time that postal workers in East Meadow helped save a senior citizen from a scam. Over the summer, another woman had already sent money several times and was about to send her bank routing number when employees realized something wasn't right.

Police say they keep trying to get the word out to people that they should never send money to receive money because it's a scam.