Lotterywest Promotions/Prize Award Centre
Advance fee fraud
Fraudsters are hoping Lotterywest will bring them big dollars.
The fraudsters aren’t prepared to take their chances along with the rest of us by entering Lotto. Instead they are using the reputation and name of Lotterywest to swindle overseas consumers.
Lotterywest (Lotteries Commission of Western Australia) is the official state lottery for Western Australia.
Lotterywest is receiving an increasing number of inquiries from overseas consumers who have been sent unsolicited emails by Lotterywest Promotions/Prize Award Centre.
The email states that the consumer has won US$60,000 or a similar amount. To claim the amount, the consumer must contact their promotions manager. Contact details are then provided.
This is an advance fee fraud. If the person responds, the promotions manager will ask them to send money to pay for release or handling fees and other legal expenses.
Lotterywest have posted a warning on its website www.lotterywest.wa.go.au
It states: “It has come to our attention that unauthorised overseas operators are communicating by mail and email to people throughout the world purporting to be Lotterywest or to represent Lotterywest. These communications advise that the recipient has won a large prize and request that further details be sent to Lotterywest (or the sender) in order that the prize can be claimed. They then eventually ask the recipient to pay a fee (sometimes described as a handling fee) for the prize to be paid.
“Please note that unless you have purchased a Lotterywest ticket in Western Australia and are one of our registered players, the correspondence you have received is a SCAM. If you wish to check please email us on contact@lotterywest.wa.gov.au or phone us on + 618 9340 5100.”
Our thanks to Lotterywest for notifying us of these scams so we can alert our international readers.
Scams of a similar type include:
For more scams of this type and others, visit the full list of scams by type page.
