I am a millionaire...
I received a letter from the Loterias y Apuestas des Estado yesterday, which is apparently a lottery program in Spain. The letter was in English and was giving me instruction to claim my EUR1,498,160 prize from a huge international Spanish-based lottery.
I was so happy… With that money, no more headaches to pay back the loan or buy a house or take some really nice holidays…
But wait a minute… How could I win to a lottery I haven’t bought a ticket for? And why do they want a copy of my passport and all possible information about my bank account? And why is this printed with an ink jet printer on cheap paper? And why is the contact phone number starting with a “6” which is the code for a mobile number in Spain?
I did a quick check on the Internet and obviously, this is a lottery scam. Once you make contact with the fake lottery company, they’ll ask you various fees for taxes, money transfer and so on and try basically to suck money out of you before disappearing.
I don’t think any reader of this blog will fall for such a lousy scam but I’m posting copies of the letter and I’m reporting them to the Spanish authorities and I hope they'll catch those idiots.
Links explaining the Spanish Lottery Scam:
http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/internet/lottery.shtml
http://www.elgordo.com/info/scamsen.asp
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_2475.html
Copy of the two pages letter received to my UK address:
Page 2: Now send us your identidy and bank account information please
I was so happy… With that money, no more headaches to pay back the loan or buy a house or take some really nice holidays…
But wait a minute… How could I win to a lottery I haven’t bought a ticket for? And why do they want a copy of my passport and all possible information about my bank account? And why is this printed with an ink jet printer on cheap paper? And why is the contact phone number starting with a “6” which is the code for a mobile number in Spain?
I did a quick check on the Internet and obviously, this is a lottery scam. Once you make contact with the fake lottery company, they’ll ask you various fees for taxes, money transfer and so on and try basically to suck money out of you before disappearing.
I don’t think any reader of this blog will fall for such a lousy scam but I’m posting copies of the letter and I’m reporting them to the Spanish authorities and I hope they'll catch those idiots.
Links explaining the Spanish Lottery Scam:
http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/internet/lottery.shtml
http://www.elgordo.com/info/scamsen.asp
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_2475.html
Copy of the two pages letter received to my UK address:
Page 1: Congratulations, you've won almost EUR 1.5m
Page 2: Now send us your identidy and bank account information please
posted by k at 9:08 AM
5 Comments:
Do you mind if I claim the 1.5m in your name?
I am so disappointed though. When I read the title, I thought you had finally made it and would fly everybody to a big fiesta. I'll have to wait a bit more then. :)
G.
Yeah I guess we really have to work to make that million... what a shame :)
We have the same kind of scam in Taiwan as well. Guess criminal tricks are universal. Here in Taiwan this kind of lottery scam even come with a 24-hour toll-free service hot line, lawyers and advertisement fliers... very professional indeed.
Karibu,
I was thinking maybe you could be a good Samaritan and help a highly potential candidate (like me :oP ) to go to LBS if you have won that lottery... Too bad.
I'm glad to see that globalization is working also for crooks and louzy scams...
I'm sure you will do fine for your applications to business schools
K.
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