An international crime wave is sweeping the world in the form of the lottery. Criminals are convincing people, especially the elderly that they have won the lottery and must only turn over a small amount of money to receive their winnings. Of course the lottery is a false claim and the culprits make away with the “winners” money. One such event happened recently to an 82 year old woman in Blackburn.

The woman, who does not want to be named, received a letter almost a year ago, stating that she had won €500,000 from the Spanish Eurolottery. The woman then sent checks weekly to the lottery people, because they told her it was needed to claim the prize. The criminals would call her weekly and tell her she needed to send different amounts from £1,000 to over £10,000.

The woman’s son has stated that his mother replied to the con artists because she wanted to be able to set her family up by paying off mortgages and helping them out. He then stated that at first the lottery group asked for £7,000 to cover the Spanish Lottery tax but then would say they needed more funds before they could release the money.

The elderly woman had been widowed four years ago and would send the checks from a bank in Blackburn to several different Spanish names at foreign banks. She kept the lottery to herself and told no one. It was not discovered what she was doing until her son was arranging to take over as her financial advisor in case she became ill.

Her son then advised the woman to not send any more money and to let him know if she was contacted. The woman was contacted within a week for more money, she will not be sending any more. The family decided to tell this story in the hopes that other people will not be scammed out of large sums of money. The son has stated that the Trading Standards will be asking the Government to use the Postal Services Act to remove the scam letters as they come in, so people will not receive them.


- 2008-08-18