Australian Lottery Fraud

Lottery, sweepstake or prize draw fraud happens after fraudsters contact you to tell you that you have won a large sum of money in an international lottery, sweepstake or other prize draw.
The Owen Sound Police Service is currently investigating a fraudulent lottery offer that has occurred over the course of the weekend. An elderly Owen Sound resident was notified by unknown person(s) via a phone call that they were the ‘winning recipient’ of a $4 million dollar Australian lottery.

However, in order to claim the lottery winnings the elderly resident was instructed that they had to purchase a $200 gift card from a Wal-Mart store. Later that same evening the unknown person(s) called to obtain the serial number from the rear of the gift card. The elderly person willingly complied as they believed it would pay for the $4 million dollar ‘winnings’ to be shipped to Canada.

The next day unknown person(s) contacted the elderly person again to arrange for an additional purchase of 5 – $1000 gift cards from the same Wal-Mart store in return for the information on how to claim their $4 million dollar lottery ‘prize’. Fortunately police were able to intervene and prevent the elderly person from committing more funds to the fraudulent activity of the unknown person(s) and the additional gift cards were not purchased.

The Wal-Mart store co-operated with the police investigation and cancelled the previous gift card that had been compromised by the unknown person(s). Unfortunately, the elderly person had already provided their full bank account and personal information to the unknown parties while speaking to them on the telephone. The financial institution was contacted and the personal banking information was changed to prevent access to the personal account of the elderly person.

Sergeant Rusk of the Owen Sound Police Service indicated that police would like to remind people that if the offer seems too good to be true…it generally is…and legitimate financial institutions never call you directly to obtain your personal banking information”.

LOTTERY SCAM BACKGROUND:
This is a classic scam scenario. The person is contacted by the fraudster that they have won a large amount of money from someone who claims to be an official at the lottery company. If you respond to the fraudster

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