Cleveland Police are warning the public not to fall for the “China Sports Lottery” scam.
The scam letter says the recipient has won more than £800,000 in the China Sports Lottery. The letter then urges the reader to contact an address in Beijing and London.
In lottery scams fraudsters will tell you that you have won a prize and that you need to pay a “fee” to receive it or ask for personal information in order to steal your identity.
Protect yourself against lottery fraud
- Remember if you haven’t entered a lottery then you can’t have won it.
- No official lottery will ask for a fee to collect winnings. Any request for a fee payment is a good indication that someone is trying to defraud you.
- Never, ever disclose your bank details or pay fees in advance.
- If they’ve provided an email address to respond to, be very suspicious of addresses such as @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com or numbers beginning with 07 because these are free to get hold of.
- Genuine lotteries thrive on publicity. If they ask you to keep your win a secret it’s likely to be a fraud.
- Many fraudulent lotteries have bad spelling and grammar.
For further information please visit the Cleveland police website.
Please note that Action Fraud is not responsible for the content of external websites.
To report a fraud and receive a police crime reference number, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use our online fraud reporting tool.
