Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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The Spanish Ministry of the Treasury has advised us that legitimate lottery tickets can only be purchased from authorized ticket sellers in Spain. Let us repeat that: The El Gordo lotteries are only open to Spanish residents - you CANNOT win if you are not IN Spain.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
Also see this page for a sample in the UK.
Below is yet another example of a fake lottery . Again, note the poor format and poor grammar. They also expect a payment in order to receive your winnings. If paying a fee to receive unsolicited winnings from a lottery makes sense to you; then you are too gullible to be allowed to have a bank account....
Dr. Barrish Gupta Kumar
Mobile: 09322921300
Occupation:Scientist
Age:34
Next of kin: Wife (Mrs. Kiran)
Amount won: US$1,000,000:00 (one million united states of america dollars) in cash credited to file REF NO. EESW/25041238013/03.
Lottery date: 4th MARCH 2006/ 18TH FEBRUARY, 2006
Ticket number 023-0148-790-459
Serial number 5073-11
Lucky numbers 43-11-44-37-10-43
File REF NO. EESW/25041238013/03Dear Dr. Barrish Gupta Kumar ,NOTARIZATION OF YOUR CASHIER'S CHEQUE(US$1M)
This is to acknowledge the receipt of your email and from the directive of Mr.DICKSON MICHAEL, DIRECTOR OF FOREIGN SERVICES,EUROPE ELGORDO LOTTERY PROMO MADRID,SPAIN.
We have ascertained and verify the validity of your winning from our headquarters in MADRID, SPAIN, and you need to get a legal clearance from the ministry of justice here in Nigeria to a sworn affidavit on your behalf for the notarization of your cheque.
However, You will be required to make a payment of (US$875 Dollars) EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE UNITED STATES DOLLARS to notarize your lotto prize cheque in the Federal high court of Justice since the cheque has been issued in your name, Please note that the fees is not deductable and under the Nigeria judicial constitution in accordance with article 44 subsection 144 of the Nigeria regulations as amended in 1996 constitution.
The notorized document and the receipt of payment will be released and issued in your name from the Federal high court of justice to our office subject upon confirmation of this payment which is payable to the federal high court of justice through our legal department so that we can as well send your cheque to your designated address.
The notarization of your cheque is mandatory because it will be attached to your cheque before the Courier Service ( DHL EXPRESS MAIL SERVICE) can accept it for the postage of your cheque to your designated address,this is due to the huge amount involved.
It is not the policy of the lotto company to accept fund from any of our winners, but it was resolved after the 11th of September, 2001, incident in the United States of America, coupled with the March 11th madrid train bomb terrorist attack, that to enhance speedy delivery of the won prize cheque to the beneficiary and to duly certify that the fund is not related to Drug money, Money Laundering and Terrorist Sponsoring fund, the cheque must be notarized in the
court for it to be cleared by the courier service, to save time and cost, it became imperative to request the notary amount (US$875) in order to have the prize notarize in court and winners meet the deadline and subsequently post your cheque to your designated address.
Immediatelly we recieved your payment details our attorney will proceed to the High court to get your won cheque notarized before it can be posted to you.
A copy of your payment draft will be sent to you via attachment for you to see before it will be posted to you issued in your name from our official paying bank ABN AMRO BANK,for you not to be sceptical about your won prize.
You are directed to pay by WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER with the following information below ,to speedy the processing of your notarization document. To the
NAME: ALLEN IKE
CITY : WARRI
STATE: DELTA STATE
COUNTRY: NIGERIA
You are required and advice to make this payment to enable us start with the legal processing of your cheque and kindly provide the payment information, as stated below,
1)NAME OF SENDER
2)NAME OF RECEIVER
3)AMOUNT SENT
4)MONEY TRANSFER CONTROL NUMBER (MTCN)
5)TEST QUESTION
6)TEST ANSWER.
Call me on phone(+234 805 716 6131) or Email me immediately you have
received this mail for confirmation here in our office.
Congratulations once again.
Yours Faithfully,
Barrister ALLEN IKE
Head of legal department.
DR.KENNETH BELLO
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
AFRICA PAYMENT CENTER
TEL: +234 805 716 6131
FAX: +234 53 255295
See this page for the warning in Spanish and many other languages
"Loterķas y Apuestas de Estado (LAE) would like to inform the general public that a number of groups of criminals of various nationalities are using the prestige and the commercial names of the Spanish Lottery by fraudulent means in several countries. They move easily around the whole world and use mobile telephones, PO boxes, provisional or false addresses (including real addresses of official Spanish organisations), as well as names that bring to mind prestigious institutions ("el Gordo", la Primitiva", "European Lottery Commission", etc.) They also forge the printed sheets and signatures of various banks or insurance firms.
In order to carry out the fraud, the procedure that is generally followed consists of informing the potential victim that they have been the lucky winner of a substantial prize (even if they have not participated in any draw), although they cannot collect this prize until they have paid an amount going towards the taxes, bank costs, delivery costs or insurance processing, etc. Usually, the fraudster warns their potential victim that the deadline to pay these charges is very soon and that their right to collect the prize is about to expire.
Loterķas y Apuestas del Estado, that is, the Spanish Lottery, wants to inform very clearly the following:
To win a prize of the Spanish lottery is essential to have purchased previously lottery or bets of our range of products.
Spanish lottery prizes are always free of taxes and burdens.
When you are offered "prizes" that seem to be linked to the Spanish Lottery, DO NOT PAY ANY AMOUNT. We are, in all probability, before a criminal fact that must be reported to the authorities. The Spanish Police has already arrested and subjected to legal procedures some of the members of groups who were operating from Spain.
If you have any question, please contact:
sugerencias@loteriasyapuestas.es "
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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