269 Ogden Center Road, Spencerport, New York 14559

Lottery Scams

The Ogden Police Department has seen an increase in the number of lottery scams in recent months.  (See samples below)

 What are they?
Victims are notified, by e-mail or conventional mail (we have seen an increased number in notifications done by conventional mail) that they have won a prize in a foreign lottery or sweepstakes.
E-mail lottery scams can often be identified simply by the fact that the responsible e-mail address is an obvious free e-mail account (yahoo.com, Netscape. net, hotmail.com, etc.)
If you receive a “prize notification” from a suspicious lottery:
        - don’t respond
        - call 9-1-1
        - don’t pay any money in advance to collect a prize
        -  don’t reveal your identity
        - don’t reveal your bank account number or credit card details.

 How does it work?
 Almost all the recent cases brought to our notice have involved the advance fee formula. Victims typically are notified they have won, yet have to transfer fees or provide proof of their identity and/or details of their bank account in order to access the “winnings.” The names of the organizations running these operations change all the time, although many of the notifications use similar wording.

The World Lottery Association stresses the dangers of responding to this type of correspondence. Even if no money is transferred to these organizations, simply providing an ID or bank account details to an unknown party makes consumers vulnerable to identity theft.

Many of the scams we have seen lately enclose a legitimate looking bank/ cashier check made payable to the victim. The victim is advised that this check is to be used towards payment of the clearance fee and local taxes. They are then told to contact a person at a phone number to acknowledge receipt of this check. When they call they are told to cash the check, however, they need to send a certified check or Western Union money gram to them for an amount less that the check.

For example: the victim gets a check for $3,100 dollars. They call the number on the lotto notification letter and are told that the check they received should not have been for that much money and the victim needs to send them back a check for $2,800.

The victim deposits the $3,100 check and gets a certified check or Western Union money gram for $2,800 and sends it out to the address on the lottery notification.

The victim then finds out from their bank that the check they cashed was fraudulent and they are out the money they sent.
 
All legitimate lotteries only sell their lottery products within their respective jurisdictions. They never require winners to supply private banking information or pay money of any kind to collect their prize.
 
Legitimate sweepstakes do not require prior payment or purchase.  Nor do they require the payment of “taxes” or “shipping and handling charges” in advance to receive a prize. These lottery “scam” letters look official and also may include a paragraph that states
“We also advise our winners not to disclose to any financial institutions including their local banks or local Western Union Money Transfer outlets, that they have won money from the sweepstakes. This is due to the fact that most of our last month’s winners claimed that they were eventually taxed close to $15,000 after disclosing that they had won money from the sweepstakes before they received their final cheques, which is against regulations. You are only to disclose your winnings after you have received your final and last cheque for $46,900.”
 
The reason they do not want the victim to tell their bank or local Western Union Money Transfer outlet is that banks and Western Union employees have been advised by the police and banking officials of these types of scams and to advise their customers accordingly.
 
Due to the fact that these scams are coming from offshore suspects, consumers should bear in mind that, other than filing a police report, they have no legal recourse and will be out the money.