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El Gordo
Sample Lottery Scam Email:
El Gordo Spanish Sweepstake Lottery
"El-Gordo Spanish lottery S.A "
and / or "International Promotions"
Did you receive a letter in the mail (post) claiming you won the "El Gordo" Spanish lottery? It was and always will be a scam. No such letter would be sent from any legal Spanish lottery to anyone outside of Spain.
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 and other legal Spanish lotteries are only open to Spanish residents - you CANNOT win if you are not resident 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....
First El Gordo Scam report:
Just recieved a postal scam from El Gordo Spanish Sweepstake Lottery.... seems to be in a similar vein to all the others except the award is for e685,950.00 ( six hundred and eighty fivethousand nine hundred and fifty euros).... The agent mentioned is MARIA JOSE , foriegn services manager AXA SEGUROS E INVERSIONES (with the proper AXA logo) the tel no: 0034 625 480 848 and the fax no:0034 911 012 616 ..... they just need all my bank details...yeah sure, Ill post them to you now!!!!!.... apparently AXA bought my ticket for me ( how sweet) and they are keeping 10 percent..... so they try to scam me, then they charge me for the pleasure!
Another El Gordo scam report:
Today I have rec'd a letter from El Gordo Spanish Sweepstake Lottery/International Promotion Programme stating I had won monies, they are not asking for any monies up frount yet! Although I am guessing after research that they would do.
I am a little concerned as to how they recovered my personal details such as home address as this letter came via royal mail which has been stamped.
Report from a potential victim:
El-Gordo Spanish lottery S.A.scam. It says to calle guzman el bueno No 107,28022 madrid spain tel/fax:011 34 615 737 672
From: the office of the vise president
International promotions/prize award dept
Ref No:Tim/2551257643/08
Batch No:XPD23/10531/XB
ATTN: Beneficary Date:19/03/08
Complete the enclosed form and Fax back to CLSN.011 34-911-012-622
Another report of the ElGordo scam postal letter:
Interlotto Commission El Gordo de Navidad
28014 Madrid, Spain
Calle Romano N19 Planta 5
28014 Madrid, Spain
+ 34 696 87 92 14
Mr. Raul Gomez is the Chef.
Examples of the scam El Gordo La Primitiva Letters, as they actually look:
Advisory from the real Spanish lottery agency (Loterķas y Apuestas de Estado (LAE) ):
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:
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To win a prize of the Spanish lottery is essential to have purchased previously lottery or bets of our range of products.
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Spanish lottery prizes are always free of taxes and burdens.
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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.
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If you have any question, please contact: sugerencias@loteriasyapuestas.es "
Names of Scam / Fake / Fraud Lottery
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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