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Sat, 16/12/06

El Gordo lottery scam hits Limerick

by Pamela Duncan

LIMERICK has become the latest in a long line of international cities to be hit by El Gordo Lotéria Primitiva, a lottery scam designed to trick recipients into providing their bank details so hoaxers can access their funds.

One such letter, received by an elderly woman in Garyowen, claimed that she had won 615,810 euro in the El Gordo Sweepstake Lottery.

The mail was addressed to her late husband, leaving the widow doubly upset over the hoax.

Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Liam Sheehan, says there has been an explosion of these fake lottery tickets in recent months and he himself has filed "hundreds” of complaints regarding them.

"It’s a major scam. These letters are being sent to a number of houses all over the country. The aim is to get your bank details and withdraw money belonging to you,” Sgt Sheehan told the Limerick Post.

Sgt Sheehan has a simple solution. Anyone who receives these letters is advised to "throw them in the bin”.

The Office of Consumer Affairs gives the same warning.

The difficulty in catching these scam artists is that they generally originate from outside the Irish, and sometimes the EU’s jurisdiction, meaning they are not breaking any law.

Clare Gordon, an enforcement officer with the Office of Consumer Affairs, said that the most important thing was not to respond to these letters.

"If you respond you will be put on a ‘sucker’s list’ and will be opening yourself up to much more of this material from international criminal organisations”.
 

She added that people’s personal information was very easily obtained; "Your personal information is a commodity and your name and address can be bought and sold. People can make an awful lot of money selling on addresses in this fashion. It’s the business of the day.”

The hoax ‘award claim notifications’ are now a global phenomenon and have been reported on all over the US, the UK, Europe, Australia and even as far away as Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Claiming to select numbers through an international balloting system as part of an international promotions programme, the scam claims that the recipient has won a share in the El Gordo Sweepstake Lottery.

A seperate form is provided where the recipient is asked for their bank details and personal information such as date of birth, marital status and even their occupation, questions that are replicated for their next-of-kin.

They are also requested to send on a copy of their passport or drivers license "for verification”.

In a further note, the letter encourages recipients to "keep this award from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your account”.

This particular letter originated in Spain, where such scam artists face little or no government intervention.

When the Limerick Post rang the Spanish contact number provided for the Santa Lucia Security Company, we were assured that this was no scam but a genuine insurance company handling prize money for El Gordo Lotéria Primitivo.

When asked how they got their hands on the contact details of individuals, Mr Don Sanchez Rodriguez said that the name was probably acquired as a result of a trip to Spain or through using a credit card to purchase Spanish products.

An email version of the scam has also been circulated. The email attempts to initiate dialogue with the recipient and subsequently trick them into parting with their money.

© Limerick Post Newspapers 2006