The National Lotteries Board in association with the National Gambling Board has once again become aware of several fraudulent lottery schemes (Golden Rand Lottery, Sunset games SA and Junostakes) to name but a few, that have been circulating via the Internet. The fraudsters operate through various fictitious companies and websites including a fictitious and fraudulent sagcb.com supposedly the “official” regulator website.
Several of these fraudster claim that the prizes are guaranteed by the regulators, although they use various titles for the regulators such as the South African Gaming Authority, World Gaming Authority and many others. The manner in which the scam is usually perpetrated is as follows, although not always the same.
- The fraudster may either e-mail or telephone you alleging that you have won a first, second or third category prize usually several million Euros or Dollars.
- They inform you that the way in which you were selected is by a random ballot system with 25 000 or more names.
- They have you complete a claim form which informs you that the transaction should be treated as confidential or the prize may be forfeit.
- The catch to the whole scheme is the “Administration or Transfer fee” which is payable as cash or money gram to a Financial Services company acting as an agent on behalf of the Lottery company. The “Administration or Transfer fee” is normally in the region of 4 to 6 thousand Euros or US Dollars.
- On enquiries they are quick to point out that the fees mentioned above are non-deductible from the prize money.
The National Lotteries Board, National Gambling Board of South Africa, together with the Provincial Gambling Boards countrywide wish to disassociate themselves from these various fraudulent lottery schemes and the public is accordingly warned to be vigilant of these fraudsters.
The public is also advised that South Africa has only licensed Lottery/Lotto operator namely Uthingo, they under NO circumstances ask for any fee, nor is any fee payable by a winner of any lottery prize in terms of any South African gambling legislation.
Should the public be aware of such schemes or if they are uncertain of any of the above issues they are welcome to contact either the National Lotteries Board, tel +27 (0)12 432 1300 or Mike Burns (mburns@ngb.org.za) or Themba Marasha (mmaponya@ngb.org.za) at the National Gambling Board on tel +27 (0)12 394 3800 .
IF IT’S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE – BE AWARE
