Combating Lottery-based Scams Guideline

Transcription

Guideline
WLA – Combating Lottery-based scams
WORLD LOTTERY ASSOCIATION
GUIDELINES
Combating Lottery-based
Scams Guideline
The Security and Risk Management Guideline on Lotterybased Scams for the Lottery Industry worldwide
Issued by the
WLA Security and Risk Management Committee
March 2008
This Guideline is the property of the
World Lottery Association
WLA
World Lottery Association
Lange Gasse 20
CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
http://www.world-lotteries.org
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Table of contents
FOREWORD................................................................................................................................. 4
0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 6
0.1 Purpose ......................................................................................................................6
0.2 Legal Compliance .....................................................................................................7
0.3 References with Other Documents..........................................................................7
0.4 How to Use This Document......................................................................................7
1 THE BASICS OF SCAMS ......................................................................................................... 8
1.1 What is a Scam?........................................................................................................8
1.2 What is a Lottery-based Scam?...............................................................................9
1.3 Stages of the Scam...................................................................................................10
1.4 Further information and references on Scams ....................................................11
1.5 Why should WLA members be concerned? .........................................................11
1.5.1. Legal Liability: Protecting Public Assets ................................................................... 12
1.5.2. Reputation: Lottery-based scams are bad for Good Causes .................................... 12
1.5.3. Stewardship: Persons Protection and Help .............................................................. 13
2 WLA FIGHTING AGAINST LOTTERY-BASED SCAMS GUIDELINES................................. 14
2.1 Designation of a responsible person ......................................................................14
2.2 Information Gathering and Processing ................................................................14
2.3 External Awareness and Cooperation Preparation Networks ...........................14
2.4 Information Broadcasting......................................................................................15
2.5 Help Referral...........................................................................................................15
2.6 Organization............................................................................................................15
2.6.1. Service provision....................................................................................................... 15
2.6.2. Responsibilities ......................................................................................................... 16
2.6.3 Procedures................................................................................................................. 16
ANNEX I LOTTERY-BASED SCAMS EXAMPLES ................................................................... 17
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ANNEX IIA MESSAGES TO PERSONS REQUESTING INFORMATION / PROTOCOL ......... 21
ANNEX IIB MESSAGES TO PERSONS THAT HAVE BEEN SCAMMED / PROTOCOL ........ 22
ANNEX IIIA MESSAGES FOR GENERAL INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS............................... 23
ANNEX IIIB EXAMPLES OF MULTILINGUAL MESSAGES (WEB ORIENTED) ..................... 24
ANNEX IIIC EXAMPLE OF BILINGUAL MAIL REPLY ............................................................. 26
ANNEX IIIV EXAMPLE AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION................................................... 27
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Guideline
Foreword
These guidelines are issued by the World Lottery Association
to provide a general background and practical guidance for
fighting lottery-based scams for the lottery community.
Be warned that this guide will not try to define in terms of civil
or criminal law the scam or fraud concepts. A scam is a nonlegal activity that can link to criminal and civil offenses in most
jurisdictions, but its categorization is subtle and jurisdiction
related. In this regard, the word fraud will be used in a
common speaking sense, meaning deception that makes
people lose money.
A “scam” describes the situation in which a person (the
scammer) tries to dishonestly obtain money from another (the
victim). A “lottery-based scam” refers to a scam that is based
in the use of lottery products or related image as a means to
deceive the victim.
The most common lottery scam is to make the victim believe
that he/she is the winner of a (big) lottery prize, typically
without having even purchased the lottery product in
question. The victim has to advance money for whatever
expenses beforehand in order to be able to cash the prize.
This kind of scam is a confidence trick, a class of a more
general fraud class called advance fee fraud.
Whenever innocent and uninformed people can be reached,
criminals try to lure them, using as bait fictitious enormous
benefits, sometimes to exploit victim innocence, sometimes
partly to exploit their greed. Note that in some countries, for
some kinds of scams, it is not only the swindlers that are
guilty, but the swindled persons as well. In these cases, both
parties might be prosecuted.
Fraud might happen in a given lottery jurisdiction using the
local gaming products as examples or using products from
other lottery jurisdictions. Also, victims in other jurisdictions
might be trapped by scams based on that jurisdiction’s
products.
Lotteries are not liable for the existence of lottery-based
scams or the resultant scam victim. The scammed person is
responsible for their acts. Nevertheless, it is a lottery’s
fiduciary duty to contribute to the public good and cooperate
with lotteries in other jurisdictions to exert their best efforts to
avoid lottery scams. As a result, damages to the persons
being scammed are minimized while avoiding collateral
damage to the lottery’s reputation.
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Lottery organizations should be aware that their organization
and products’ reputation is probably being used in scam
schemes against people in their jurisdictions and worldwide,
with that probability increasing the higher their offered prizes
are.
Whenever that risk has already materialized or has a high
potential to, the reputational cost of inaction could be
unacceptably high. Under this line, State Lotteries have the
opportunity to demonstrate responsible leadership in
Corporate Responsibility in the fight against lottery-based
scams, differentiating themselves as a force for public good
while at the same time limiting potential litigation situations.
Cons and scams will always happen - they can only be
minimized. The only way to effectively do this is through
increased awareness and by offering assistance to people
seeking guidance. Bear in mind that most challenged people
will be from different jurisdictions and also immigrants with
local language understanding challenges that stress the need
for a multilingual multicultural communication. Those lines
must be rooted in co-operational activities with third parties
(other lotteries, law enforcement, consumer organizations,
counselors, etc)
Lotteries must also be ready to provide referral information to
people that have suffered property loss.
The World Lottery Association has recognized the need to
take guiding fighting against lottery-based scams action and
therefore prepared adequate guidelines for the lottery sector.
These guidelines should be seen in addition to jurisdictional
legal and regulatory requirements and be helping lottery
organizations to implement general provisions into practice.
Any comments or suggestions regarding this guideline should
be directed to the WLA Security & Risk Management
Committee.
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0 Introduction
0.1 Purpose
This WLA Lottery Scams document is for guidance only.
The purpose of this document is to assist lottery organizations
in the recognition and reduction of the potential impact of
lottery-based scams, those frauds that use their organization
and products reputation for direction against people within
their jurisdiction or worldwide, giving practical prevention and
fighting advice.
These guidelines are designed to reflect world wide trends in
anti-scam practices which are directed to ensure that lottery
organizations take all appropriate steps to deploy lotterybased scam fighting practices:
•
•
•
•
•
•
To inform themselves about developments in scam
practices that might be relevant, to understand the
implications, and train their staff.
To deploy means to monitor ongoing scams trends.
To promote cooperation with worldwide lotteries and
lottery associations to engage in common actions
To engage in cooperation with local authorities, including
consumer oriented, law enforcement, and counselors,
developing a network of contacts for public referral.
To set in place informative processes to reduce the
number of scams:
- Awareness measures directed to the public in general,
both targeted to the locals and towards foreign public,
web-based and otherwise.
- Telephone/mail answering services, answering
common concerns of persons
- Warning messages to law enforcement and to lotteries
in other countries.
To set in place referral services to help victims:
- Providing links to local law enforcement officials and
counselors
- Providing links to help abroad
- To report suspicious activities to the relevant
authorities.
This and the other WLA Guidelines do not by themselves
currently constitute a mandatory Security Control Standard
and as such cannot be included within the scope for
assessment of controls against the WLA security certification
process.
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0.2 Legal Compliance
Lottery organizations should be aware that jurisdictional laws
and regulation exists in most cases and the WLA strongly
encourages its member organizations to carefully review and
consider these requirements. In cases where contradictions
between applicable laws or regulation and the contents of this
guideline exist, applicable laws and regulation shall always
take precedence.
0.3 References with Other Documents
This guideline is based on input from the WLA Security and
Risk Management Committee, WLA members and associate
members as well as a number of references, as described in
the corresponding section.
0.4 How to Use This Document
This guideline is intended for use primarily by lottery
organizations. While it is recognized that a “one-size-fits-all”
approach may not be appropriate for the entire lottery industry
due to the diversity of games and sales channels, each
jurisdiction should consider the specific nature of its business,
organizational structure, type of customers and transactions,
etc. when implementing the suggested measures and
procedures to ensure that they are effectively applied. The
main principle is that a lottery organization should be able to
satisfy itself that the measures taken are appropriate,
adequate and follow the requirements of the law and
regulation.
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1 The Basics of Scams
1.1 What is a Scam?
A scam is a kind of fraud.
A fraud is, in general, an improper practice to obtain personal
advantage of a given situation, either making use of the
knowledge of restricted information, the decision faculty of its
authority in an organization or by carrying out unlawful
activities. It almost always involves damage to another party.
Regarding the lottery, any of its stakeholders can be
damaged: the lottery, the public, the participants, the retailers,
the suppliers or another person in general. Bordering this
concept, in some jurisdictions it is also considered improper
behavior when one person profits for their own advantage
even when no damage results.
In most jurisdictions, fraud, even attempts at fraud, represents
a criminal offense. Typically, the real intention of deceiving
has to be proven, thus resulting in low numbers of convicted
scammers.
Examples of potential1 fraud or improper behavior:
• Selling of stock by a member of the Board after
knowledge of lower profits than expected and prior to
public disclosure.
• Contracting with a supplier after receiving some
facilitating payment
• Unfairly designation of a Point of Sale to a friend
• Unlawfully cashing unclaimed prizes
A scam is a fraudulent scheme involving deception to induct
the victim to make disposal of her/his property or assets for
the sole advantage of the scammer, either hiding material
facts or just lying. When the scam intent is successful,
scammers retain the victim’s property – victims may or may
not be acting in good faith.
Examples of scams:
•
•
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A sale of real state property not legitimately belonging
to the person making the sale. Victim pays and does
not get the property.
Putting money for an investment that does not exist
Delictive practices are influenced by applicable laws
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•
A sale of a home to a third party while seller has
already closed a sale with another party and received
a payment.
Frauds, cons and scams are global problems that affect all
countries to varying degrees. Appropriate actions should be
taken to mitigate such activities.
1.2 What is a lottery-based Scam?
A lottery-based scam is a scam that uses the lottery
reputation and/or lottery products as the means to deceive.
There are several schemes of lottery-based scams. One
scheme is based on somebody showing a (supposedly)
winning ticket to the victim and asking to change it for money
because they cannot wait for the point of sale to open to cash
the prize. A variation of this is the ‘fast rip-off’ where the
supposed owner of the prize attempts to appear
psychologically challenged and suggests a trade of his ticket
for an amount of money less the winning prize. This guideline
will focus on the advance fee kind of lottery scams:
In the advance fee kind of lottery-based scam, the victim
typically receives fake notices of lottery wins – usually big
prizes. The victim is usually asked to send sensitive
information to anonymous free email accounts or make one
or more phone calls to provide this information.
Notifications use blatant forgings of real lotteries, generally
from other countries; most of the time, these include obvious
grammatical problems and other mistakes, but use bombastic
names and designations. To avoid suspicion, the victim is
usually told that they had been entered into the draw as part
of promotion without cost, and that is the basis of his luck. Of
course, all provided contact names and directions are
fictional. See examples in Annex I.
Sometimes, in order to get the victim to take the bait, the
scammer sends fake or stolen bank checks to the victim, as
proof of initial payments of the prize.
Oftentimes, victims at this stage will contact the lottery
supposedly awarding the prize to confirm its authenticity.
Surprisingly, many victims do not believe the true information
given and continue further involvement with the scammers.
Lotteries should devote special attention to these contacts to
ensure that clear guidance is provided to the callers. If done
successfully, numerous scams can be avoided.
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Once the victim has “bitten the bait” and is ready to assume
that the win is legitimate – and not earlier - the scammer will
indicate that there are some fees to be paid, in advance of
receiving the prize money.
These ‘fees’ are typically
suggested to be for prize processing or taxes.
The victim starts sending more and more money based on
each new delay tactic presented them, until such point as the
victim panics, attempts to get the advanced money returned,
and begins to think that they have been scammed. Usually
at this same time, the victim gets into contact with the lottery
that was believed to have awarded the prize.
Lotteries should carefully handle these contacts to ensure
that clear guidance is provided to the callers. If done
successfully, this can help scammed people understand the
steps that should be taken next as well as to avoid lottery
reputation damage.
There are numerous accounts of lottery-based scamming,
with people loosing high amounts of money, as well as the
existence of organized gangs of fraudsters. See the Scamdex
database reference and the reference on suspects in Annex
IV.
1.3 Stages of the Scam
There is no single method of scamming.
Despite the variations, the scamming process is often
described as consisting of four main stages:
•
Luring – from initial contact until the victim really
believes that a real prize has truly been won.
•
Milking – the victim starts to send advance fees to the
scammer; the scammer prolongs the situation as
much as possible.
•
Moaning – the victim discovers that they have been
cheated and starts crying for help.
•
Claiming/Pursuing/Prosecuting/? – Sometimes the
victim reports the facts to the authorities and begins to
search out the culprits. This phase ends when money
is
recovered
and/or
culprits
have
been
arrested/convicted or the action is closed for lack of
ability to locate or prosecute the culprits.
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1.4 Further information and references on Scams
There is abundant information on advance fee frauds, the
most well-known of which is called the Nigerian 419 fraud,
named for the article of Nigerian Criminal Code which deals
with it. See Annex IV for further sources of information.
Scams and lottery-based scams happen constantly. The
scam risk is a clear and present danger. A BBC presented
study concluded that in 2006 the Nigerian scams cost the UK
economy 150 million British pounds a year, with the average
victim losing 31,000 pounds. There are reports of victims
murdered after kidnapping, after what is known as “come and
carry” situations (where the victim is convinced to travel to
collect the money).
The United States Federal Trade Commission has issued a
consumer alert on 419 frauds.
There are also appearing increasing numbers of “scam
baiting” schemes, the practice of pretending interest in a
fraudulent scheme in order to manipulate the scammer – see
Annex IV for an example. It is to be noted that this practice
borders the unlawfulness and it is considered morally
reprehensible in many jurisdictions.
State Lotteries and their associations should provide
warnings regarding lottery-based scams on their websites.
Some lottery-based scams are purely used to capture victim
information for spamming purposes and identity theft.
1.5 Why should WLA members be concerned?
Awareness and information of lottery-based scam schemes
are critical for three main reasons. In addition to managing
the risk of reputational damage or potential legal liability
claims that activists might try to impose on lotteries, WLA
members are advised to consider taking measurable steps to
help the public avoid being scammed.
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1.5.1. Legal Liability: Protecting Public Assets
Legal liability in relation to lottery-based scams is typically
considered a low-probability, medium-impact risk. No major
organization or authority, national or international have
pointed to the lotteries as having any direct or indirect
responsibility. Common sense indicates that the potential link
is extremely low.
WLA members should remember that any organization is
exposed to stakeholder activism – that case where a member
is faced with legal action that could open a lawsuit process.
Even when potential liability is so low, the hassle and
expenses related would advise the prudent organization to
devote some efforts to pre-empt the merit of any claim. So,
lotteries have a vested interest in ensuring a proactive
approach with respect to fighting against lottery-based scams.
While not yet having compelling legal reasons given the cost
level of the measures, it remains wise to stay abreast of
developments and to anticipate risk, converting potential
challenges to opportunities.
1.5.2. Reputation: Lottery-based scams are bad for Good Causes
“Because they deal with other people’s money, banks and
other financial and professional institutions rely heavily on a
reputation for probity and integrity,” said the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Lotteries need their
good name to build their activities and retain public trust. The
prestige of any organization in which it is revealed that its
fiduciary duties were not taken seriously (in relation to Public
Order) can be severely impacting. In short, lottery-based
scams are bad for good causes.
Gaming operators with motives other than the public good
and a loose understanding of social responsibility are
progressively creating an image of the gaming sector with
which the WLA and its membership in the state controlled
sector should not be associated.
Reputational risks include:
•
•
•
•
Damage to corporate image of the organization via
adverse media reaction
Mistrust by the general public/players
Fall in sales
Erosion of stakeholder confidence
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•
•
•
Apparent lack of social responsibility
Enhanced restrictive governmental controls
Crisis in case of legal action for criminal negligence
Over and above the (low) likelihood of legal implications for
failing to address lottery-based scams, a proactive stance on
fighting lottery-based scams by State Lotteries generates
goodwill and public impact. Adopting a clear position is a
socially responsible management decision, enhancing
members’ reputations and helping to safeguard long-term
sustainability.
1.5.3. Stewardship: Persons Protection and Help
The large money prizes offered by the gaming products and
the reputation of the lotteries combine to offer a platform to
lure innocent persons, especially in those cases where the
ones targeted are told of a won “prize” in a jurisdiction other
than the one in which they reside.
Especially vulnerable groups are the uninformed, those with
lower income, and generally those in developing countries, as
these tend to be lured at a lower cost. Mass (spam) emailings sent to a hundred thousand email accounts can
reach worldwide in a few short seconds and at a very low cost
for the scammer. Given the thousands that they will likely
receive, even the smallest percentages of success for them
yield tremendous gains.
Information and education are the proactive actions that
lotteries can use to reduce the impact of the scammers
activity.
While it is the authorities responsibility to educate and warn
the population to recognize scams and avoid being trapped,
lotteries are situated in a privileged spot to aid in this task. In
a good example of Corporate Responsibility, lotteries should
exert special care to help people to avoid getting trapped into
such fraudulent schemes, leveraging upon each other and
each others associations to help spread the word
internationally.
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2 WLA Fighting against Lottery-based Scams Guidelines
2.1 Designation of a responsible person
Lotteries should designate a person responsible to manage or coordinate scam fighting
efforts. The assigned responsibility should at least include ensuring that the following
activities are performed by the lottery in a coordinated way.
2.2 Information Gathering and Processing
Lotteries should gather information related to scam practices and keep informed about
what is going on in the national and the international scene, with particular emphasis in
lottery-based scams. For example, an observatory could be set up, building a
surveillance network keeping in contact with other lotteries and major lottery
associations and with their local law enforcement. Trends should be observed in relation
to each game.
Lotteries should identify those staff involved in activities that might be part of scam
conversations, customer assistance division personnel, public/media relations, security
and top management functions being amongst them. All those persons should know
about the issues related to scams and develop an internal strategy in relation to lotterybased scams.
Proper training should be given to the designated staff, in addition to the general
knowledge provided for all staff.
2.3 External Awareness and Cooperation Preparation Networks
Lotteries should take action to make other lotteries and their associations aware of the
issues associated with lottery-based scams.
Lotteries should deploy a cooperation network with lotteries and lottery associations on
both the regional, national, and international levels, and engage in common actions.
Those actions could involve public information campaigns, web-based points of
information, or other activities. Special attention should be given to the possibility of the
residents in an external jurisdiction being presented with scams using the products of the
lottery wishing to heighten their scam-fighting efforts. In these cases, knowledge sharing
can prove vital.
Lotteries should engage in cooperation with local authorities, including consumeroriented, law enforcement and counsellors, developing a network of contacts for public
referral. Also, when they are advised from another jurisdiction about an on-going scam
against their residents, this information could be transferred to their local law
enforcement with whom they have a prior established relationship.
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2.4 Information Broadcasting
Lotteries should set in place informative processes aiming to reduce the number of
scams using for example:
•
Awareness measures directed to the public in general, both targeted to the
locals and towards foreign public (multi-language). Web based and
otherwise.
•
Telephone/mail answering services, answering common concerns. Foreign
language based questions could be diverted to the Lottery of the potential
victim.
•
Warning messages to law enforcement and other lotteries when newly
detected on-going scams are known.
These services are typically provided via customer relationship divisions. Examples of
possible information and contact protocol are provided in Annex IIa.
2.5 Help Referral
Lotteries should set in place referral services (web based, telephone/mail) to help
victims:
•
Providing links to local law enforcement officials, consumer oriented
organizations and counsellors.
•
Providing links to help abroad
•
To report suspicious activities to the relevant authorities.
Typically customer service divisions provide this service. It has to be noted that people
calling can be in rather pressing situations and special care should be taken in these
contacts, where referral to counsellors can be essential. Examples of possible
information and contact protocol are provided in Annex IIb.
2.6 Organization
2.6.1. Service provision
Lotteries should organize the corresponding policies, processes and procedures to fulfill
those stated guidelines. Major building blocks of those are the customer relationship
units and the security function.
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2.6.2. Responsibilities
Lotteries should establish clear responsibilities and accountabilities to ensure that
policies, processes and procedures are introduced and maintained. It bears repeating
that it is difficult to achieve this objective unless a person within the lottery organization
is given responsibility for carrying out this role together with the necessary authority.
Lotteries should therefore appoint an officer function to undertake this role. In addition,
this officer function should be one of the main points of contact with the relevant
authority (law enforcement), with the network of cooperative lotteries and with the
counselors.
The functions of this coordinator officer should be to ensure that:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The information concerning scams is gathered and processed
The corresponding strategy and policies are developed
The relevant functions are identified and properly trained
The external awareness and cooperation networks are developed and
maintained
The information broadcasting activities are performed, supervised, and provide
continuing updates of individual situations
The help referral activities are performed and supervised while following
counselors and law enforcement activities.
2.6.3 Procedures
Lotteries should embed within their processes the mechanisms needed to fight
against lottery-based scams.
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Annex I Lottery-based Scams examples:
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SCAM ALERT! NASPL or our member lotteries do not hold drawings or award
lottery prizes in through the mail. Illegal scam artists claiming to be affiliated with
NASPL, our members and many other organizations are circulating letters claiming
to award lottery prizes or unclaimed prize money. Fraudulent cashiers checks are
also being sent with these letters. Most of these are coming from Ontario, Canada.
THESE ARE ILLEGAL SCAMS!
Do not send the criminals any money or personal information without first
investigating the situation fully. Do not trust the phone numbers provided on the
check, since these will go to an accomplice in the scam who will tell you the check is
good. Look up the actual phone number of the bank or credit union online or
through directory assistance and contact their security department directly to ask
about the validity of the check. Report this to your local and state authorities.
UPDATE - The latest scam now circulating requires the winner to pay customs
duties or taxes to have their prize sent across the Canadian border. The "winner" is
eventually contacted by a person claiming to be a Canada customs agent, but they
are IMPOSTERS. The phone number provided uses a voice mail message copied
from the actual Customs Agency, but will immediately transfer you to the criminals.
Contact Us directly for agencies to report your scam to, or if you require additional
information.
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Annex IIa Messages to persons requesting information / Protocol
Remember: there are four groups of persons at this stage
a) Those that will instantly discard the winning notification as a fraud
b) Those who understand that their notification is a fraud, but who want to learn
more about the lottery’s responses to it and how the scam typically works
c) Those that have taken the time to call but are really wishing to believe that the
prize is true. These are the most probable victims. Convincing them that their
alert is a scam will be difficult.
d) Those that have already fallen for the scam but don’t want to be further
embarrassed by telling you
Messages (essential for the third group!):
- no organization just gives away money prizes without a person first playing (there
are no ‘free promotional’ drawings)
- not a single lottery will ask for an advance payment or a post-prize payment
- Players MUST NOT PAY any money to redeem their prize
- Players MUST NOT GIVE personal information nor their full identity
- Players MUST NOT REPLY to EMAILS
- Players MUSL NOT REVEAL their bank account number or credit card details
- If a player remains skeptical, despite these warnings, lotteries can offer them
ideas to separately confirm what the lottery is telling them. Ask them to:
• Visit the website of the lottery whose prize is supposedly being won
• Contact the lottery website or public offices of the local lottery in their
jurisdiction (if this is not you)
• Contact the Police and Consumer protection websites sponsored by the
established authorities in their region
• Visit the WLA Website
After contact, the incident should be reported to the local police, the foreign lottery
partner (if applicable), and one or more lottery associations.
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Annex IIb Messages to persons that have been
scammed / Protocol
Remember: All persons have been cheated at this stage. There are different attitudes
and aspects amongst them (some of these can overlap):
a) Those that have lost a minor money amount (minor in terms of their budget)
b) Those that want to cooperate in stopping further scammers by assisting in their
capture and/or prosecution
c) Those that are very angry and want to discharge their tension
d) Those that have lost a paramount high amount of money (in terms of their
available money)
e) Quiet (internally angry) people
f) Possibly now suicidal people.
The messages to these persons are clear. They should be advised to contact law
enforcement and to cease all contact with the fraudster unless directed to do so by law
enforcement.
After contact, the incident should be reported to the local police, the foreign lottery
partner (if applicable), and one or more lottery associations. In addition, the incident
should be referred to the applicable counseling organization.
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Annex IIIa Messages for general information campaigns
Inform the public about lottery-based scams of the following:
-
State lotteries do not hold drawings or award lottery prizes through the mail or
through email.
State lotteries do not make no cost international promotions
To enter any drawings, participants must have purchased the corresponding
products
Not a single lottery will ask for an advance payment or a post prize payment
Advise:
DO NOT PAY any money (neither advance payment fee, customs, duties, insurance,
taxes or whatever)
DO NOT GIVE AWAY personal information nor your full identity
DO NOT REPLY to EMAILS
DO NOT REVEAL your bank account number or credit card details
Warn:
- Against phone calls from supposed lottery representatives to award lottery prizes or
unclaimed prize money
- Against phone calls from supposed handling agents, insurance agents, customs
agents, etc who attempt to impersonate official bodies even using recorded original
voice mails.
- Against fraudulent cashier checks being sent with the letters.
Recommend that they inform themselves:
- They should not trust contact points (email, telephone numbers, and addresses) sent
to them, but rather should separately acquire them using public directories.
- Use the website of the lottery whose prize is supposedly being won.
- Use the website of the lottery and public offices of the local country of the calling
person.
- Use the WLA’s website at http://www.world-lotteries.org
Recommend that they report the scam attempt to their local law enforcement and lottery.
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Annex IIIb Examples of multilingual messages (web
oriented)
Versión en Árabe
Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (LAE) pone en conocimiento del público que unas bandas de
delincuentes de nacionalidades diversas, están utilizando fraudulentamente el prestigio y los
nombres comerciales de la lotería española en varios países. Se mueven con facilidad por toda
la geografía mundial y emplean teléfonos móviles, apartados de correos, direcciones
provisionales o falsas, (a veces direcciones reales de Organismos Públicos Oficiales españoles),
así como nombres que evocan instituciones prestigiosas (“El gordo”, “La Primitiva”, “European
Lottery Commission”, etc.). También falsifican impresos, nombres y firmas de diversas entidades
bancarias o de aseguradoras.
Para cometer la estafa, el procedimiento generalmente seguido consiste en anunciar a la víctima
potencial que ha sido agraciada con un premio cuantioso (aunque no haya participado en sorteo
alguno), si bien no podrá cobrar dicho premio hasta que haya pagado, por anticipado, una suma
destinada a impuestos, gastos bancarios, gastos de envío o tramitación de un seguro.
Habitualmente, el estafador advierte a su víctima potencial, que el plazo para abonar esas
cargas es muy breve, y que está a punto de caducar su derecho al cobro del premio.
Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, es decir, la lotería española, quiere comunicar, con la mayor
claridad lo siguiente:
a.) Para obtener cualquier premio de la lotería española, es imprescindible haber comprado
previamente lotería o apuestas de nuestra oferta de productos.
b.) Los premios de la lotería española siempre están libres de impuestos y gravámenes.
c.) Si le ofrecen “premios” que guarden relación aparente con la lotería española, NO PAGUE
NINGUNA CANTIDAD. Estamos, con toda probabilidad, ante un hecho delictivo que deberá
poner en conocimiento de las autoridades locales. La Policía española ha detenido y puesto a
disposición judicial en varias ocasiones a miembros de bandas que actuaban desde el territorio
nacional.
d.) Si tiene cualquier duda, puede dirigirse a: sugerencias@loteriasyapuestas.es
24
Guideline
IMPORTANT WARNING
Loterías y Apuestas de Estado (LAE) would like to inform the general public that a
number of groups of criminals of various nationalities are using the prestige and the
commercial names of the Spanish Lottery by fraudulent means in several countries.
They move easily around the whole world and use mobile telephones, PO boxes,
provisional or false addresses (including real addresses of official Spanish
organisations), as well as names that bring to mind prestigious institutions ("el
Gordo", la Primitiva", "European Lottery Commission", etc.) They also forge the
printed sheets and signatures of various banks or insurance firms.
In order to carry out the fraud, the procedure that is generally followed consists of
informing the potential victim that they have been the lucky winner of a substantial
prize (even if they have not participated in any draw), although they cannot collect
this prize until they have paid an amount going towards the taxes, bank costs,
delivery costs or insurance processing, etc. Usually, the fraudster warns their
potential victim that the deadline to pay these charges is very soon and that their
right to collect the prize is about to expire.
Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, that is, the Spanish Lottery, wants to inform very
clearly the following:
1. To win a prize of the Spanish lottery is essential to have purchased previously
lottery or bets of our range of products.
2.
Spanish lottery prizes are always free of taxes and burdens.
3. When you are offered “prizes” that seem to be linked to the Spanish Lottery, DO
NOT PAY ANY AMOUNT. We are, in all probability, before a criminal act that must be
reported to the authorities. The Spanish Police has already arrested and subjected
to legal procedures some of the members of groups who were operating from
Spain.
4.
If you have any question, please contact: sugerencias@loteriasyapuestas.es
25
Guideline
Annex IV References and Sources of Information
1. “SCAMS: Coming to a Lottery Near You”, Presentation by Dawid Muller, Uthingo
Management, Corporate Services Director. WLA website.
2. WLA Warnings http://www.world-lotteries.org/services/security_fraudhome.php
3. European Lottery Association Warnings https://www.europeanlotteries.org/communication/warnings.php
4. NASPL Warnings http://www.naspl.org/
5. Spanish State Lottery warnings to public
http://onlae.terra.es/avisos/avimpor0502.htm
6. Spanish State Lottery warns Bulgaria of lotto scam https://www.europeanlotteries.org/data/info_413/Spanish_Lottery_Warns_Bulgaria_of_Lotto_Scam.pdf
?AELTEWEBSITEID=53c89c031a6339474f
7. OFT Warnings
http://www.oft.gov.uk/oft_at_work/consumer_initiatives/scams/lotteries
8. http://www.econsumer.gov/espanol/index.html
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud
10. Spanish Police arrests 150 Nigerian mafias suspects of lottery scamming
https://www.europeanlotteries.org/data/info_623/Nigerian_scammers_arrested.pdf?AELTEWEBSI
TEID=53c89c031a6339474f
11. Lottery Scam Database
http://www.scamdex.com/Scam_Archive/ScamDB_L_0.html
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419_scam_baiting
13. http://www.econsumer.gov/Search internet on “scams”, lottery+scam,
Nigerian+scam, 419+scam
26

Combating Lottery-based Scams Guideline

Transcription

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