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The U.S. Federal Trade
Commission has this advice for consumers who are thinking about responding
to a foreign lottery or other potential cross-border scams:
- If you are a US citizen and you play a foreign
lottery through the mail or by phone, you are violating federal law.
- If you buy one foreign lottery ticket, expect more
bogus offers for lottery or investment "opportunities." Your name will
be placed on "sucker lists" that fraudulent telemarketers buy and
sell.
- Keep your Social Security, credit card and bank
account numbers to yourself. Scam artists often ask for them during an
unsolicited sales pitch.
- Do not fall for a promise. Telephone solicitations
that require an upfront fee for advance-fee loans, unidentified investment
opportunities or prize promotions are against U.S. law. Furthermore, legitimate
lenders do not guarantee a loan before you apply, especially if you have bad
credit or no credit record.
- If you do not recognize a telephone area code,
check it out in your telephone directory.
- The bottom line, the commission says, is to
ignore all solicitations for foreign lottery promotions. If you
receive lottery material from a foreign country, give it to your local
postmaster or contact your state attorney general's office or the FTC.
For further consumer information please
consult the following government agencies web sites:
Warning: Do not send any money or personal details to anyone
who says that you have won a prize or anything else in a lottery or sweepstake
that you have not previously entered. Such claims are almost certainly frauds.
Always check fully any person or organisation before sending anything to
them.
Lottery and Sweepstake themed advance fee frauds are
on the increase. Individuals are targeted by e-mail and notified that they are
a category A, B or C winner of a substantial amount of money, usually totalling
millions of dollars, pounds or euros.
'Processing Fees'
The processing fee is usually the way to identify these scams. In some
cases a 'processing fee' is mentioned in the initial 'win' communication.
However some fraudsters wait until the 'win' recipient is sufficiently
interested before asking for money.
Up front fees before the release of the
'jackpot' are usually justified as insurance costs, claim verification charge
or a fee stipulated by a regulatory authority. There is nothing in British law,
nor would there ever be, that requires a prize winner to make any payment in
order to claim a prize.
Never
respond to any such requests for advance payment.
"But they
haven't asked for any money."
Some fraudsters set out to steal identities.
Stop and think before you ever release personal information such as passport
number, home address, telephone number, banking details, etc, to unknown
organisations.
Websites
Many win notifications contain
hyper-links to websites purporting to act for the lottery organisers. Taking
the form of financial institutions such as insurance companies, the management
of 'lottery' funds will appear as only a minor part of their wider
organisation.
They may seem professional at first glance, but most do not
bear close scrutiny. Most of these websites have been pirated from genuine
organisations; as a result of cutting and pasting you may find that text is
inconsistent, spelling irregular and the Contacts page will contain mobile
phone numbers.
Finally….
How can you win a lottery or sweepstake if you never
purchased a ticket?
Miller and
Dr. Ed Stanek gave these tips to avoid
lottery and sweepstakes scams:
- Never wire funds from a check
you've received to pay “taxes or fees” for a promised lottery
or sweepstakes prize. You'll never see your money again. Reject any kind of
scheme that sends you a check and asks you to wire money back.
- To avoid all types of lottery
scams, never believe a letter, phone call or Internet message from anyone who
claims they can guarantee you a prize! Legitimate lotteries do not guarantee
that you will win a prize and do not require people to join prize pools to
play.
- Never pay processing fees,
insurance or commissions to claim a lottery prize. Legitimate lotteries do no
require winners to pay anything up front to receive a prize.
- Keep your Social Security, credit
card and bank account numbers to yourself. Scam artists ask for them with the
goal of accessing your accounts and stealing your money.
 Fake Lotteries Cost UK Citizens Over
£260 Million Annually
Lottery Scams Are
Conning Britons
LONDON, U.K. (November 30,2009) –
According to the UK’s a consumer watchdog has warned that hundreds of
thousands of Britons are being conned each year by fake lottery
scams......................Subscribers
Guilty Plea in NY
Lottery Scam
NEW YORK, New York (November 25, 2009) - A New
York City man has admitted he created phony winning scratch off
tickets.........................Subscribers
Canadian Lottery Buyers
Association Founder Fined $2 Million for Direct Mail Lotto
Scheme
TORONTO, Canada (August 31, 2009) -- Press reports
that a Toronto man who pleaded guilty to sending out millions of deceptive
direct mail promotions has been fined $2 million – double the amount of
money he made from his activities..................Subscribers
NOTE: We recently
received this email, it claims that our parent company Interplay Multimedia is
involved in this SCAM
SUR - PROMOTIONS charity lottery OF EAST ASIA FOR
VIETNAM
We are pleased to report on today's announcements of winners of the
LOTTERY AWARD WINNING SUPER MAYOR PROGRAM.Your company or personal email
address attached to ticket number 123-765-90, with a serial number that
identified 42,243 -98-01, Gain lucky numbers 06-14-17-28-30-41. A lump sum
payment of $ 1.280.000,00 United States has been granted, to believe in the
File Not VCLP / 24-FB-4234243/007VN.
You should contact the claims
department by e-mail;
Name: Mr Tran Phu
Agency Name: UNIVERSAL CLAIMS
AGENCY, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Email: universalclaimsagent01@gmail.com
Congratulations once again from our team to participate in our promotions.
Mrs Nguyen Thanh Duong Online Coordinator
The society lotteries are managed
by Interplay Multimedia Pty Limited, certified by the Commission on Gambling
ELM Certification 180/3/2. © Interplay Multimedia Pty Ltd. 81 Oxley Drive
Mittagong NSW 2575, Australia.
PLEASE NOTE: That under no circumstances is Interplay
Multimedia associated in any way with this SCAM.
We have contacted the Australian Federal Police and The Computer crimes unit of
the NSW Police Department. It these culprits can be identified they will be
charged and prosecuted.
Player Accuses National
Sports Lottery of Fraudulent Practices
ACCRA, Nigeria (June
13, 2009) – Local media source reports allegations of fraudulent practices
have been levied against officials of the National Sports Lottery (NSL) and its
operators MTN..................Subscribers
Jamaica/US Lottery Scam
Task Force Has Early Success
JAMAICA (May 29, 2009) --
Radio Jamaica reported today that nine people who were held on Thursday in an
operation by a joint Jamaica/United States task force on suspicion of being
involved in the deadly lottery racket were questioned on Friday
afternoon........................Subscribers
US and Jamaican
Officials Introduce Task Force To Break Up Island-Based Lottery
Scams
JAMAICA (May 26, 2009) -- Jamaica has reportedly
become a new center for lottery scams, which are similar to the Nigerian
lottery swindles. The lottery scams are reported to have grown dramatically
over the past two years, mainly targeting marks in the
U.S....................Subscribers
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