National Lottery Euromillions scam
Last Updated: Thursday 17th June 2010, 17:00
What would you do if you received a letter or an email telling you that you had won a small fortune? Would you be tempted to reply? Just on the off chance it was genuine. Luckily one Coventry granddad had a lot more sense and realised this was just one of the latest in a long line of National Lottery Euromillions scams.
Brian Taylor, a 65 year old retired nurse who lives in Coventry, received a letter in the post informing him that he had won £225,000 in the National Lottery but knew instantly it was a fake so contacted his local police and the press to warn other people about this Euromillions scam.
Brian received the letter in the post on Monday asking him to send his bank details by December 4th to a company called UK Security Solutions in London to claim his National Lottery Euromillions winnings. Brian passed the letter onto his wife as she is treasurer of a local Scout group and she confirmed his suspicions as there were a number of tell tale signs including the fact that Euromillions had been spelled incorrectly, the fact it was not franked and they had placed such a short deadline on his claim. The letter was also cheeky enough to tell him to keep the letter a secret to “avoid unwarranted abuse of the programme or fraudulent acts from criminally minded and unauthorised individuals”.
The Coventry couple phoned the police immediately and found that as they expected UK Security Solutions does not exist. Councillor Hazel Noonan who is cabinet member for City Services said "You always need to ask yourself several questions if you receive such a letter:
- If you’ve never entered into a competition, how can you have won?
- If you have genuinely won a prize, why do you have to pay a fee?
- Why do they need all your personal information if they’re supposed to be paying you cash?
- If you need to call a premium rate telephone number, will this cost you more than the value of the prize?"
Finally she said "Always remember the old saying that if an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is!"
