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E-mail Lottery scam People in Ireland have been warned
against bogus e-mails telling them they have won Britain’s National
Lottery.
The e-mails purport to come from the National Lottery office in Liverpool
but accompanying telephone numbers are unobtainable mobile phone numbers.
The cheats are trying to trick recipients into di-vulging their bank details
and other personal details by telling them they have won hundreds of thousands
of pounds sterling.
Recipients are told they have been picked at random to win a National
Lottery prize but bosses of the real lotto insist they never e-mail people
to tell them they have won a prize.
A British Lottery spokesperson said: “As a general rule, if people
have not purchased a ticket for the UK lottery then they won’t have
won a prize, and they should treat the e-mail with absolute caution.
“We don’t tell players how much they’ve won in an e-mail
and we don’t ask for any player information like name, address or
bank details on an e-mail.
“If the e-mail says Winning Notification or Lottery Sweep Stake
in the message then the e-mail they’ve received is not from UK National
Lottery.”
British lottery operator Camelot and the Consumers Association of Ireland
say such e-mails are increasing at an alarming rate while the National
Consumer Agency last week alerted the public to a Spanish lottery scam
operating by letter.
In Britain consumer watchdogs reckon scams like the e-mail lottery and
others can cost the public around £5billion annually.
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