Lottery scams - beware

In view of the forthcoming festive season I must warn you, dear readers, not to fall for any scams. The originators of these scams go on overdrive over the Christmas period. Last Sunday I featured an article, which was carried in the popular UK leading consumer magazine Which? on Lottery Scams.

It was about a general practitioner from Rotherham who was duped out of £93,000 by a bogus Spanish prize draw. Subsequently, I received some letters from readers who received similar scams and quite rightly threw them in the bin, where they belong.

However, another reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, fell for it. In such cases I am prepared to co-operate, particularly while bearing in mind that, by sharing his bad experience, he is helping us to keep consumers informed and alert about the reality of such scams. Here follows one of the numerous versions of this notorious scam:

From The Promotions Manager, International promotions/prize award department, Corporate Headquarters, Arnout Treasure Promo Lottery. We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International programmes held on June 18, 2005. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 45511465886-498 with serial number 3699-03 drew lucky numbers 7-14-17-23-27-35, which consequently won in the second category. You have therefore been approved for lump sum payout of US $250,000...

This is from total prize money of US$127,500,000 shared among the 17 international winners in this category. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 100,000 company and 50 million individual e-mail addresses and names from all over the world.

This promotional program takes place every three years. Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this programme. We hope that with a part of your prize, you will participate in our end-of-year high-earn stakes US$1.3 billion international lottery.

To begin your claim, please contact your claim agent immediately as stated below for due processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice... Remember that all prize money must be claimed, otherwise the lottery funds will be returned as unclaimed.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in every one of your correspondence with your agent. Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, do inform your claims agent as soon as possible. Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions programme.

N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to automatic disqualification and anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified. Sincerely yours.

I thank the consumer involved for sharing his bad experience with us. Indeed the rogues behind these scams exploit the fact that consumers who fall for such scams are too embarrassed to admit it. Hence, although the awareness of such scams is improving, many people still fall for it.

So if there are any readers who fell for it and wish to warn consumers about such scams, as I explained, in such cases I am prepared to co-operate. By sharing such bad experiences, we can keep consumers informed and alert about the reality of such scams.

Here follows an excerpt from yet another scam received by another reader:

The Irish Lottery Gaming Board and all the staff of this great company are pleased to inform You that Your e-mail address has won the online lottery draw held on December 8.

On behalf of the Irish Lottery Board, I want to congratulate You for emerging the winner of this month's draw.

The draw was done electronically with several e-mail addresses provided to this office by Microsoft to enhance the utilisation of the Internet.

Your e-mail address was attached to reference number IR/9420X2/68 and was picked as one of the five winning e-mail addresses.

This has qualified you to claim the total cash prize of €1.35 million. Your winning cheque will be handed over to you as soon as our claims department verify your winning after you might have filled the payment processing form that will be given to you in due course. We do not need your bank information for you to claim your winnings.

You are advised to contact our claims agent...

As I explained last Sunday, they will ask you to pay for the processing of your winnings. All you have to do is to ask them to take the money from your winnings, whereupon they will drop it. That is what they did in my case.