Scams galore

I received the enclosed e-mail from Brittany Lottery International.

As I did not participate in any overseas lottery or play coupons, I understand that this is an attempt to commit a fraud to my detriment.

You are authorised to publish the e-mail in The Sunday Times. (Edwin Mamo)

Here follow excerpts from the letter informing Mr Mamo about his winnings:

We happily announce to you the draw (No. 1060) of the Brittany Lottery, online Sweepstakes International programme held on Saturday, April 8, in Newcastle, United Kingdom.

Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 564-75600545-188 with serial number 5368-02 drew the winning numbers: 09 23 32 35 36 40 05 which subsequently won you the lottery in the match 5 plus bonus category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £215,502 (in cash), credited to file KTU/9023118308/05. This is from a total cash prize of £1,724,016, shared among the eight lucky winners in this category.

All participants for this online version were selected randomly from World Wide Websites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weekly.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your £215,502 will be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.

Our fiduciary agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him. To file for your claim, contact our licensed agent. (Name and e-mail address given)

Congratulations once again from all members and staff of this program. Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery programmes. (Mrs Victoria Van Lehman)

As I have already explained in previous columns the originators of these scams send loads and loads of such letters because inevitably there will be those, albeit a small percentage, who will fall for it. I received quite a few and, on one occasion, I played along with them but it didn't last long. Basically, when they asked me to pay for the processing of my winnings, I asked them to take the money from my winnings whereupon they dropped me like a ton of bricks.

I am informed that there are some people in Malta who fell for it and were bitten. Unfortunately in such situations the respective victims do not like to share their experience. However if anybody who was bitten wishes to share the experience, in confidence, we will gladly carry the story without featuring his or her name. For what it's worth, in doing so, we will be able to avoid other people from being bitten.