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Madigan warns of Lottery e-mail scam
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 posted 10:23 AM EDT
April 23, 2007 - Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan Monday warned consumers about an unsolicited e-mail currently circulating
claiming that the recipient has won the Illinois Lottery.
The e-mail is part of a scam designed to defraud money and gain personal information from consumers, according to a news
release from Madigan's office. It is not authorized by the Illinois Lottery, which never, the release points out, notifies
winners by e-mail.
In this Illinois Lottery scam, e-mail recipients are asked to respond by sending an e-mail to an agent in which they quote
a reference, batch and winning number found in the original e-mail and provide their full name, address and telephone number.
After sending the response e-mail containing this personal information, the winners are directed to a bank in Nigeria where
their winnings are allegedly located, claiming that the Lottery is expanding globally. Contrary to these assertions, the
Illinois Lottery does not conduct any business in Nigeria or any other foreign country, the release says.
This scam involves a common form of check cashing fraud that requires the recipient to wire money based on the false premise
that the money is needed to cover the courier costs allegedly incurred for sending a prize-winning certified check to the
recipient's door step. The people conducting the scam ask the recipients to keep the information confidential until their
claim is processed, alleging that the security measures are important to avoid fraud. However, the Illinois Lottery does
not ask their players to pay for courier costs or any other costs when claiming their winnings, according to the release.
Madigan is urging consumers not to respond to these fake Illinois Lottery e-mails. Illinois consumers who have sent money
or divulged personal information in response to this fraud should contact the Attorney General Office's Consumer Fraud Hotline
at (800) 386-5438. The Spanish-language Hotline number is (866) 310-8398.
Madigan noted that the so-called Nigerian letter scam continues to be a popular form of fake check fraud. Although this scam
has many permutations, it almost always begins when a con artist asks the consumer -- by mail, e-mail, phone, or fax -- to
help him or her move a large amount of cash out of a foreign country.
If consumers take the bait, they then receive an authentic-looking phony check in the mail with instructions to deposit it
and wire a large portion of the funds to an overseas address. If they do as instructed, consumers can then be liable to the
bank for all of the money they wired overseas in addition to any of the proceeds they have already spent.
"No matter how the fake check scam is pitched to the consumer, the bottom line is the same," Madigan said. "Whether you're
being offered a 'lottery jackpot,' an overpayment for something you're selling, or the opportunity to help 'deposed royalty'
transfer the family fortune to another country," Madigan cautioned, "if someone is sending you a check and asking you to
wire some portion of it back, you are being set up for trouble."
Madigan and the Illinois Lottery warn consumers to be aware of these Lottery scams and suggest that if something sounds too
good to be true, it probably is. "You cannot win a lottery for which you did not buy tickets," the release said.
Madigan also encourages people to report any suspicious "lottery" material to the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov
or call (877) 382-4357. You can also contact the Illinois Lottery at www.illinoislottery.com or at (800) 252-1775.
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