Got a letter that looked like a scam about my having won the Spanish lotto and looked into it online. Sure thing, found this site at http://www.consumer-ministry.govt.nz/scams/scamwatch-spanishlotteries.html and the description of the scam matched my situation to a T.

quote:

"Spanish and Dutch lottery" letters

The Ministry advises consumers to be suspicious of letters that announce you have won thousands of dollars in a Spanish lottery but ask you to keep your win quiet because "due to a mix up in names and numbers" the prize winner information cannot be made public.

Versions referring to Netherlands lotteries are also circulating. The same warnings apply to these.

These letters are part of an advanced fee scam. On contacting the lottery operator, consumers are asked to provide details of bank accounts and confirmation of their identity. Once the consumer shows interest in collecting their winnings, the lottery operators will ask for money in advance to pay administration costs. This request should send alarm bells ringing as legitimate lotteries do not ask for funds in advance of payout - their operating costs are not deducted from individual prizes.

These lottery letters rely on people confusing them with authorised Spanish lotteries such as the El Gordo de la Primitiva and El Gordo de Navidad.

The Spanish Ministry of the Treasury has advised us that legitimate lottery tickets can only be purchased from authorised ticket sellers in Spain. The official agency that oversees lotteries in Spain (Loterias y Apuestas del Estado) has information on this fraud on its website. Visit http://onlae.terra.es Click on the link on the left hand side called "Otros Avisos" for the warning about these lotteries and information on how to contact this agency. The information is available in Spanish and English.

Remember the following rules if you receive a notification of prize winnings so you won't be caught out:

� You can't win a prize in a lottery you haven't bought or been given a ticket for.
� Legitimate lotteries don't ask for funds in advance of paying out prize money.
� Never provide personal identity information to a company or person you do not know.

List of "Spanish and Dutch lottery" letters

The most recent lottery letters are listed below in bold text.

� Al Goldino Marketing Lottery Company S.A Madrid - Spain
� Algamene Sweepstakes and Lottery
� Alpha Lottery International - new warning 5 February 2003
� Bank Giro Loterij Spel
� Crystal Lottery International - new warning 5 February 2003
� De Lotto Netherlands Sweepstakes Lottery
� El Gordo Spanish Sweepstake Lottery S.A.
� El Gordo Sweepstake Company SA
� El Gordo Sweepstake Lottery
� El Gordo Marketing Company
� El Pais Sweepstake Lottery
� Euro-Afro American Sweepstake Lottery - new warning 5 February 2003
� European Lottery Commission
� European Lotto Commission
� Fairplay Sweepstake Lottery Company SL
� Global Crossing - South Africa
� Internataional Lotto Commission (spelling mistake is deliberate)
� International Lotto Commission
� Intl Lottery Commission
� Lotto NL
� Lottery Winners International - new warning 5 February 2003
� Oy Keikkaus Netherlands Sweepstake Lottery
� Sorteo de Navidad Semanal Santa/First Lottery -new warning 5 February 2003
� Soteo De Navida/Simana Santa - new warning 5 February 2003
� Sunsweetwin Promo Lottery
� Universal Lottery International - new warning 5 February 2003
� Weltlotto-Firma Inc
� Werken Bij de Lotto
� World - Wild Marketing

Saludos,
jer...

The really sad fact is that some people will fall for this scam and lose their shirts (and pants).

And on this topic
I am amazed at the number of crazy emails that I receive from AFRICA announcing that someone has got billions of dollars stashed away in some bank account, and that you are going to be the person who is going to share the loot.

It is so tragic how the human brain can go to such extraordinary lengths to try to deceive the gullible public and to ...........

woops - back to Saddam again .......sorry

Nige

ok, these scams are back once again (if they ever left) and stronger than ever.

now the el gordo lotto scam artists have taken to sending actual letters in the mail (not just e-mails anymore) notifying people that they have won X amount of euros/USD/etc...

they use a lesser amt. to make it more believable than it might be if it said they won millions.

i have been affected by the scams in that since i launched my site at www.thefatone.com and opened an ad campaign with google adwords ( http://adwords.google.com ), i have had a TON of visits to the website from people who have received a false winning notification that they have won the summer el gordo lotto.

the following is the last e-mail i received...

quote:

To whom it may concern:

I received a letter in today's United States mail advising me of a lottery winning in the amount of $615,810 US dollars. I personally feel it is a scam & need your opinion. The letter was typed on "ELGORDA" Loteria Primitiva stationary & sent to me as follows:

Attention: Beneficiary
Ref/EG/2551256003/01
Batch/000750013

The letter went on to say on May 20th. 2004 my name was attached to ticket #025-11-464-992-750 with serial number 2113-05 drawing the lucky numbers 13-15-16-21-34-36 which consequently won the lottery in the 3rd category.

The letter went on to advise me to start my claim by contacting claim agent "Leo Gebson" the foreign service manager of the Santa Lucia Security Company S.A. on tel:011 34-670-689-758. The deadline for claiming the prize is October 29, 2004.

Additionally a form was enclosed for me to fill out & fax to: 011-34-658-472-229. (The Santa Lucia Security Compan.) The form asked : my bank name, bank account number, bank routing number, bank address etc. so payment can be transferred.

The envelope was addressed to me with Spanish postage attached however, no where on the letter was my name mentioned. Can you confirm this win to be legitimate?
Please reply via email.

D.G.
Ohio
USA

that is just one of the MANY e-mails i have received via my www.thefatone.com website and e-mail but i have received many mails and phone calls from all over the world

after the last phone call i received from a frenchman who read but did not speak english nor spanish, i was forced to put up the following warning on my lotto website...

quote:

WARNING!!! PLEASE NOTE: There are a LOT of lotto scams out there. If you have been notified (either via letter in the post or an e-mail) that you have won the "el Gordo" Spanish lottery and you did not actually play the lottery (eg- buy a ticket), it is a SCAM!!! Do not respond to the notice. The most popular scam is when you recieve a letter or e-mail saying you won a ton of money and it is being held for you at a Spanish company (eg. a financial or insurance company). They provide you a claim number and ask you to fill out a form (with your personal info and bank details) and send it to them via FAX or post. If you do this, they will then ask you to transfer them a small fee to their accounts so that they can process your prize claim. IF YOU WIRE THE SMALL FEE, YOU WILL NEVER HEAR FROM THEM AGAIN. DO NOT, WE REPEAT DO NOT EVEN RESPOND.

AS A GENERAL RULE TO LIVE BY, REMEMBER "IF YOU DID NOT PLAY THE LOTTO, YOU DID NOT WIN THE LOTTO!!!".

personally, i will not be taking down my lotto website because reselling the christmas el gordo lottery is too lucrative to pass up but i did want people about the "improvements" in the scam this year.

saludos,
jer...

p.d. there is a good and regularly updated scam warning website at http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/scamwatch/index.html

It is weird that you have updated this on the board today. Yestarday it was annouced by the US attorney general that the FBI has busted a boiler room operation for the same sort of scam. This outfit was calling people for the same information and fees. A total of 100 people were arrested they had bilked over $1.5 billion from the public. The average age of the victims was 74. A few years ago there was someone sending out FAXs that were orginating in Nigeria and Liberia for a fee they needed your help getting millions in gold out of those two African nations. That was in 1996 and they are still waiting for my fee.

hey guys, The Dutch Embassy also warns about these scams. I got this off their website:

Advertencia de pr�cticas fraudulentas

La Embajada del Reino los Pa�ses Bajos advierte a los ciudadanos espa�oles sobre actividades fraudulentas cometidas por organizaciones criminales que tienen su sede en los Pa�ses Bajos. Se trata de dos tipos de fraude:

Fraude nigeriano;
Fraude de la loter�a.
Si usted recibe una carta o un correo electr�nico que le despierta sospechas, ign�relo!

Si usted cree que es v�ctima de una de esas organizaciones criminales, p�ngase en contacto con una comisar�a de la Polic�a Nacional o la Guardia Civil lo antes posible o con la polic�a holandesa.



Advertencia de pr�cticas fraudulentas

La Embajada de los Pa�ses Bajos en Madrid ha sido informada por las autoridades policiales espa�olas de que organizaciones criminales desde Holanda realizan actividades en Espa�a. Las v�ctimas reciben cartas o correos electr�nicos en los cuales se les prometen cantidades de dinero importantes a cambio de unos peque�os pagos para cubrir los gastos administrativos y/o de tramitaci�n.

La Embajada advierte que estas actividades probablemente son fraudulentas. Se trata aqu� de una forma de criminalidad que ya existe desde los a�os 80, procedente de Africa Occidental. Esta forma de criminalidad financiera se ha divulgado en el mundo entero y es conocida bajo el nombre de "fraude nigeriano".

El fraude de la loter�a es otra actividad fraudulenta, pero el modo de operar ("Modus Operandi") es similar.



Si usted ha recibido una carta o un correo electr�nico que le despierta sospechas, considere lo siguiente:

Si la propuesta le parece "demasiado atractiva para ser verdad", piense que efectivamente es falsa.
Ignore estos tipos de cartas o correos electr�nicos.
No env�e jam�s sus datos personales como, nombre, se�as, domiciliaci�n o n�mero de su cuenta bancaria al remitente.
No pague nunca dinero por adelantado.


En cuanto a las cartas fraudulentas de tipo nigeriano:

No conteste nunca a las invitaciones en las cuales le proponen dirigirse a/o encontrarse con ellos en el extranjero. Esto no solamente puede causarle da�os financieros, si no que tambi�n supone un riesgo para su persona incluso un secuestro, lo que en muchos casos ha pasado en Nigeria o �frica del Sur. Adem�s puede ser causa de que usted sea detenido por haber cometido actividades prohibidas.
Tenga cuidado con los cheques. Casi todos los cheques que le muestran o que son utilizados durante sus contactos con estos criminales, son falsos o falsificados.
Verifique minuciosamente en los bancos, las c�maras de comercio y en las Embajadas de los Pa�ses Bajos antes de hacer negocios con pa�ses de �frica Occidental Sobre todo en caso de recibir propuestas comerciales de empresas o personas desconocidas.
Sea prudente, pues las p�ginas de web falsos en Internet de bancos y empresas de seguridad han sido creadas para que usted piense que estas actividades (criminales) son reales.


Si usted sospecha que es v�ctima de una organizaci�n criminal, le aconsejamos que se ponga en contacto con la polic�a de su pa�s y que presente una denuncia de este tipo de delito.

Tambi�n puede tomar contacto con:

La Unidad Org�nica de Polic�a Judicial de la Comandancia de la Guardia Civil en Madrid, Sector Escultores 10, 28760 TRES CANTOS (Madrid).


Tel�fono: (+34) 91 � 5146979

(+34) 91 � 8073900

Fax: (+34) 91 � 8040331

m/cmd/madrid/pj/propiedad@guardiacivil.org

thanks for that addition hilko. truth is, when one does a search on lotto scams, the duthc and spanish ones come up the most.

all that advice on those sites is great but one can shorten it all by keeping in mind my warning...

AS A GENERAL RULE TO LIVE BY, REMEMBER "IF YOU DID NOT PLAY THE LOTTO, YOU DID NOT WIN THE LOTTO!!!".

saludos,
jer...

One has to has to be careful out there... common sense is usually useful in these matters: if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Anyone who wants a laugh should check out www.scamorama.com which is a website dedicated to scam baiting. They specialise in 419 scam baiting... 419 scams are the 'I am the wife of the late president and I want to give you 300 million dollars' type of scam that started in NIgeria. Make sure you check out the Michael Dell one and the Christopher Tennant one, I laughed a lot. Oh and The Church of the Holy Pineapple is cool too!

I saw a good mail scam a week ago. It was alledgedly from a widow who had fled terrible conflict in the Congo and was now living in the Netherlands. The letter not only went into detail about how unallocated government money from the Congo could be accessed, but also played on the poor woman (and her family's) suffering. In other words the scam was trying to take advantage of people's charitable instincts as well as their greed. Needless to say the email sender was reported to my ISP straightaway.

URGENT ASSISTANCE - FROM USA

IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NEEDED : HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: GEORGE WALKER BUSH
202.456.1414 / 202.456.1111
FAX: 202.456.2461

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am GEORGE WALKER BUSH, son of the former president of the United States of America George Herbert Walker Bush, and currently serving as President of the United States of America. This letter might surprise you because we have not met neither in person nor by correspondence. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential business transaction, which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to an account requiring maximum confidence.

I am writing you in absolute confidence primarily to seek your assistance in acquiring oil funds that are presently trapped in the republic of Iraq. My partners and I solicit your assistance in completing a transaction begun by my father, who has long been actively engaged in the extraction of petroleum in the United States of America, and bravely served his country as director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

In the decade of the nineteen-eighties, my father, then vice-president of the United States of America, sought to work with the good offices of the President of the Republic of Iraq to regain lost oil revenue sources in the neighboring Islamic republic of Iran. This unsuccessful venture was soon followed by a falling-out with his Iraqi partner, who sought to acquire additional oil revenue sources in the neighboring emirate of Kuwait, a wholly-owned U.S.-British subsidiary.

My father re-secured the petroleum assets of Kuwait in 1991 at a cost of sixty-one billion u.s. dollars ($61,000,000,000). Out of that cost, thirty-six billion dollars ($36,000,000,000) were supplied by his partners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other persian gulf monarchies, and sixteen billion dollars ($16,000,000,000) by German and Japanese partners. But my father's former Iraqi business partner remained in control of the republic of Iraq and its petroleum reserves.

My family is calling for your urgent assistance in funding the removal of the President of the Republic of Iraq and acquiring the petroleum assets of his country, as compensation for the costs of removing him from power. Unfortunately, our partners from 1991 are not willing to shoulder the burden of this new venture, which in its upcoming phase may cost the sum of 100 billion to 200 billion dollars ($100,000,000,000 - $200,000,000,000), both in the initial acquisition and in long-term management.

Without the funds from our 1991 partners, we would not be able to acquire the oil revenue trapped within Iraq. That is why my family and our colleagues are urgently seeking your gracious assistance. Our distinguished colleagues in this business transaction include the sitting vice-president of the United States of America, Richard Cheney, who is an original partner in the Iraq venture and former head of the Halliburton oil company, and Condoleeza Rice, whose professional dedication to the venture was demonstrated in the naming of a Chevron oil tanker after her.

I would beseech you to transfer a sum equaling ten to twenty-five percent (10-25 %) of your yearly income to our account to aid in this important venture. The internal revenue service of the United States of America will function as our trusted intermediary. I propose that you make this transfer before the fifteenth (15th) of the month of April.

I know that a transaction of this magnitude would make anyone apprehensive and worried. But I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. A bold step taken shall not be regretted, I assure you. Please do be informed that this business transaction is 100% legal. If you do not wish to co-operate in this transaction, please contact our intermediary representatives to further discuss the matter.

I pray that you understand our plight. My family and our colleagues will be forever grateful. Please reply in strict confidence to the contact numbers below.

Sincerely with warm regards,

George Walker Bush

Switchboard: 202.456.1414