FOREIGN LOTTERIES
Don’t Gamble on Foreign Lotteries
Foreign Lotteries
“Congratulations! You may receive a certified check for up to $400,000,000 U.S. CASH! One Lump sum! Tax Free! Your odds to WIN are 1-6. Hundreds of U.S. citizens win every week using our secret system! You can win as much as you want!”
Sound too good to be true? That’s because it is. International con artists use lottery scams such as this to defraud Americans out of more than $120 million a year.
What should you know about foreign lotteries? |
What to look for in a foreign lottery scam
- They’re illegal. Federal law prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail.
- They’re losing propositions. Foreign lottery scam artists will drain your bank account or steal the money you sent to pay for the tickets, duties, and taxes.
Here are a few examples of how the schemes work:
- You receive a call, an e-mail, or a letter telling you that you’ve won a large sum of money in a foreign lottery you don’t remember entering. To claim your “winnings,” you’ll have to provide your bank account number so your winnings may be deposited into your account.
- You’re told you’ve won a sizeable lottery and are asked to wire a few thousand dollars to a “customs agent” to cover duties and taxes. But after wiring the money, you’re contacted again and told you must send even more money to collect your prize.
- You receive a congratulatory letter in the mail along with a check for $5,000. You’re instructed to cash the check, then wire a portion of the funds to a foreign address to cover taxes and fees, keeping the remaining money as your “lottery winnings.” A few days after doing so, your bank notifies you that the check was counterfeit and you now must repay it the $5,000.
Bottom line? Don’t respond to calls, e-mails, or mailings promoting foreign lotteries. If you think you’ve been victimized by one of these scams, report it to your local FBI office. Or, if you were scammed online, file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.
Fraudulent FBI E-mail Being Sent by Lottery Scammers
The FBI has been alerted
to a fraudulent email which purports to be from the FBI and attempts to convince
recipients to send money to secure prizes won in an international lottery.
The email contains Director Mueller's name and office address,
and typically comes under the title, "FBI Internet Fraud Watch/Alert".
The return email address may be listed as FBIfraudalert@hotmail.co.uk, or
FBIfraudwatch@hotmail.co.uk. The email informs the recipient that the FBI,
in conjunction with Scotland Yard, has been made aware that the recipient has won
a substantial prize in a lottery, sponsored by a well-known corporation, in the
United Kingdom. Recent variations of the phony lottery scams have claimed affiliation
with Microsoft and MasterCard. The email goes on to explain that the FBI and Scotland
Yard have screened the "Lottery House" and verified the transaction is legal. Both
agencies have also examined the Lottery House's legal procedure and confirmed that
it is legal as well. The recipients are directed to proceed with the transaction
because their funds have been insured and the FBI and Scotland Yard are monitoring
the transactions.
This email and the associated lottery are fakes, as the victims are instructed to
pay thousands of dollars in up-front fees to secure what eventually proves to be
a nonexistent prize. Consumers should be very cautious when notified they have won
sweepstakes or lotteries they have not directly participated in.
Consumers are further advised that situations requiring up-front payments to secure
lottery or sweepstakes winnings are typically fraudulent.
| 
