Warning over fraudsters using well-known lottery draws to steal money

Victims have handed over almost £1 million to lottery fraudsters during the past seven months, reporting centre Action Fraud said.
People have lost money to lottery scams (PA)
PA Archive
Josie Clarke18 November 2021

Fraudsters are taking advantage of well-known lottery draws to trick people into handing over money and personal information, police have warned.

Victims have handed over almost £1 million to lottery fraudsters during the past seven months, reporting centre Action Fraud and City of London Police said.

Criminals have been contacting victims informing them they have won a lottery or prize draw but must pay an “advance fee” to receive their winnings.

The winnings are non-existent and criminals are attempting to steal the victim’s money or personal and financial information.

Please remember, People’s Postcode Lottery will never ask for any kind of payment to claim a prize, you can’t win if you don’t play, and we don’t offer discount cards

People's Postcode Lottery

Temporary detective chief inspector Craig Mullish, from the City of London Police, said: “Criminals are experts at impersonating organisations and will mimic a number of well-known prize draws to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.

“Remember, you can’t win a draw that you haven’t entered so if you’re contacted out of the blue claiming you’ve won a prize draw but can only access these winnings by paying an advance fee: stop and think as it’s likely to be a scam.

“This could protect you and your money.”

Action Fraud said it received 629 reports of lottery fraud between April and October 2021, with 89% of cases mentioning well-known prize draws.

Impersonation of People’s Postcode Lottery accounted for 49% of all reports.

Some 70% of victims were aged over 50, with those aged over 65 making up 40% of reports.

More than half of victims (59%) were contacted by telephone, 21% received an email and 10% received their fraud attempt through the post.

Almost half of victims (41%) said they were asked to pay the advance fee to release the alleged winnings by purchasing gift cards and relaying codes to the fraudster.

Fraudsters use gift cards as a form of payment as they can be easily redeemed and sold on. Criminals do not need the physical card to redeem the value and instead ask victims to share the serial code on the back of the card with them.

Other victims provided their bank details after being told they would receive a small payment to verify their account, but criminals used these details to steal money.

People’s Postcode Lottery managing director Clara Govier said: “Please remember, People’s Postcode Lottery will never ask for any kind of payment to claim a prize, you can’t win if you don’t play, and we don’t offer discount cards.

“We know scammers often use social media. Our official social media accounts are verified so there’ll always be a blue tick beside our name. If there isn’t, the message isn’t from us.

“Finally, we encourage anyone who believes they have been the victim of fraudsters to contact our colleagues at Action Fraud or the police.”

Anyone who thinks they have been a victim of fraud should contact their bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud online at actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in