£47k World Cup lottery scam

We all dream of winning the lottery and changing our lives forever, the thought of never having to worry about money brings out powerful emotions. Sadly there are some unscrupulous people out there willing to play on these emotions and our desires for an easy life to con us out of serious amounts of money and this is sadly what happened to one Southampton woman who became the victim of a £47k World Cup lottery scam.

The 51 year old woman received a letter in the post claiming to be from the Euromillions Fifa World Cup Super Lottery informing her that she had won £800,000 in a draw a few earlier and she needed to contact them as soon as possible so they could process her winnings. The people behind the letter claimed to operate from South Africa ‘World Cup’ House in London but the address supplied actually belongs to the South African High Commission.

Click here to play the Euromillions

Sadly even though the woman had not entered any lottery they convinced her that she had automatically been entered because of a promotion at her regular supermarket. She supplied the conmen with her bank details but over the following weeks she received dozens of phone calls including one telling her that her winnings had being doubled to £1.5 million so more money was needed in processing and admin fees. In the end this unfortunate woman handed over £47,000 worth of her life savings before realising she was being scammed.

Police and Trading Standards are now looking into this case and are warning people to be vigilant and not be fooled. There are a few things you need to remember to ensure you do not fall victim to scams like these including:

• You can not win any legitimate lottery without entering it yourself
• You have to purchase a ticket to enter any lottery
• No genuine lottery organisation will contact you
• You never have to pay to collect your winnings
• Remember that conmen will use the name of legitimate lotto organisations