News Lotto letter mail scam
A woman who was targeted in a £500,000 Lotto mail scam is warning other people to be on their guard against fraudsters.
Sue Tordoff said she knew instantly that the surprise letter that plopped onto her doormat was a fake.
She now wants others to know that the fake prize game, sent by the Madrid-based 'International Lotto Commission', is a hoax.
She said: "I was chuckling to myself as soon as I opened it because I knew it was a con. They've even given me a ticket number for a ticket I'm supposed to have bought, along with a serial number."
Mrs Tordoff (46), from East Cowick, added: "If anybody elderly had got this they might have thought they'd won."
Along with the letter informing her she had won a total of £484,765 (615,810 Euros), the hoaxers sent Mrs Tordoff a form which she was supposed to fill in with her bank details.
Mrs Tordoff, a married mother-of-one, added: "I knew straight away what was going on but an elderly person could have easily given their bank details."
The letter was headed 'International Lotto Commission', which gave its address as Madrid, Spain.
Underneath this was the apparent name of the Lotto prize draw - 'Lotteria Primitiva' - which had been sent from the 'Desk of the Vice President/International Promotions/ Prize Awards'.
Mrs Tordoff said the letter was clearly a photocopy, suggesting the letter was part of a round-robin series of 'prize notifications'.
The conmen even notified her that they would be giving 10 per cent of her winnings to the claims agent, the Macalucia Security Company.
"I knew instantly that they would get my bank details and take the 10 per cent themselves," said Mrs Tordoff.
"They said the 10 per cent would be removed after I received my money because this money was already insured against my name."
A simple 'Google' click on the internet brings up a whole host of consumer websites where people from all the world have registered complaints about Lotteria Primitiva.
On one site, dedicated solely to complaints people had made about the Lotteria Primitiva, dozens of consumers - from as far afield as Australia and Pakistan - give their own accounts of how the mail-scam operation tried to trip them up.
Some mocked the conmen's amateurish and often quite comical attempts at pulling the wool over their eyes, such as using ink which smudged and standard photocopier-paper.
Published on 8th May 2008 in News.
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