By MATTHEW TORBIT - The Dominion Post | Monday, 15 January 2007
He died almost 500 years ago, but Renaissance academic Leonardo da Vinci has been haunting unwitting New Zealanders for their bank account details.
An Italian-based scam letter, signed by "Dr Leonardo Da Vinci" and purportedly from Red Cross, has been sent to at least two Kiwis telling them they have won a 300 kilogram gold bar worth 466,950 (NZ$870,750).
One of the recipients was an elderly woman who contacted the New Zealand Red Cross to ask if the letter was legitimate.
The bogus letters have prompted Red Cross officials to issue world-wide warnings not to hand over information to the scammers.
New Zealand Red Cross acting director general Graham Wrigley said New Zealanders should only respond to fundraising efforts with the official New Zealand Red Cross logo.
In the scam letter, Dr Da Vinci states the addressee has been specially selected for the grand prize, but warned against telling anyone else.
"Due to a mix-up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award from public notice until your claim has been processed."
Another woman who received the letter said as soon as she saw it was signed by Dr Leonardo Da Vinci, she knew it was a scam.
The Wellington woman had been living at her address for about six months and believed her contact details were obtained after purchasing cosmetics from a Singapore-based website several months ago.
The letter's envelope was stamped with a postal mark from the Italian port town of Ancona, which was several hundred kilometres from the Italian Red Cross headquarters in Milan.
Warnings of the scam had also been posted on Italian and Australian Red Cross websites.
A Consumer Affairs Ministry spokeswoman said lottery scams were common throughout the world and usually involved the recipients being asked to provide bank account details, passwords and identification documents in exchange for vast amounts of money.
She said British research showed about 380,000 people in Britain fell victim to the scams each year, handing over an estimated 60 million (NZ$169 million).
In December, an elderly west Auckland couple lost $19,000 in foreign Internet scams, after being promised inheritances worth millions of dollars from a supposed overseas deceased estate.
Original story - http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/3928278a11.html
• Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2006. All the material on this page has the protection of international copyright. All rights reserved.