Alert over Spanish post lottery scams

By Tania Martin
AN EMERALD resident has warned people against lottery scams after she received a letter in the mail telling her she had won $496,937.
Mary Padman received a letter in the mail recently saying that she had won a Spanish lottery and asking her to send her banking details to a claim agent.
Alarm bells rang for Mary when she opened the letter because she didn’t remember buying a ticket for any such lottery.
Ms Padman said she doesn’t even buy lottery tickets in Australia.
She said attached to the letter was a form asking for her bank account details so that the prize money could be deposited into her account.
“I was shocked and angry that I had received the letter and that they were asking for my bank details,” she said.
Ms Padman then took the letter to the police who were unable to do anything.
Constable Darren Broussard of Emerald police said people should be very wary of any unsolicited mail asking for banking details.
Ms Padman has urged anyone who receives similar letters in the mail to ignore them.
The letter that Ms Padman received identifies itself as being from the La Primitiva lottery, which is one of 44 known syndicates listed on the Consumer Affairs Scam Watch List.
A Consumer Affairs Victoria spokeswoman said people should never give out their bank or financial details unless they knew who they were dealing with.
She said anyone who was sent a letter saying they had won a lottery should think back and remember if they have purchased a ticket for that lottery draw.
The spokeswoman said people who received such letters in the mail could check the Consumer Affairs Victoria web site at www.consumer.vic.go.au to see if the name of the scam sent to them has been registered.