A West Belfast woman is warning people not to fall for a lottery scam after she was sent a letter through the post saying she had won £750,000.
In the letter, sent from ‘the Commonwealth of Nations Online Lottery’, the woman was told her numbers had come up and urged to claim her winnings immediately.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said her name and address were on the letter and that she immediately became suspicious. “I had never heard of this lottery scheme before and surely if you won something like this you would have remembered entering in it in the first place,” she said.
“What really put me on my guard was the fact the letter said ‘This information must be kept away from the public to avoid unwarranted abuse of the program or fraudulent acts from criminal minded and unauthorised person (s).’
“It is just so odd for a letter to say that and warning signs went off in my head,” she said.
“There is a number attached to it but when you ring to speak to the person on the other line there is no answer. There is another page attached asking you to fill out all your personal details, including bank details, branch address, account number and sort code.
“I just wanted to bring it to the attention of the Andersonstown News in case families or elderly people call the number or send their details away or think it is easy money in for Christmas. God knows how many of these letters have gone out and people need to aware that it is a scam.”
