A friend of ours (lets call him Joshua) unwittingly got caught up in a fraudulent 'prize winning' scheme recently and lost $7,000. He gave the scammers his passport details and bank account details, and they started to harrass him by phone for more money and got angry when they asked for a receipt for the previous money. Fortunately, we were able to help Joshua to understand that this was a scam before he sent any more money.
This information from the Australian regulator will help you understand what happens:
How this scam works
Scratchie cards are sometimes used in promotions, lotteries or competitions, beckoning users to ‘scratch and win an instant prize’, for example travel or holidays. While some scratchie cards may represent legitimate lotteries or competitions, you should be extremely suspicious of any scratchie card that requires a payment to claim a prize.
Scratchie scams will offer you an instant prize, but when you contact the trader to claim it, you will be asked to provide payment for various ‘fees’ via wire transfer or preloaded money card. The scammer may request bank details and photo identification. In some rare cases you may be asked to travel overseas to collect your winnings.
The scam package may include professional-looking brochures, often for accommodation, which are designed to trick you into thinking the competition is legitimate. It may include contact details for a business overseas and a web address for a fraudulent but professional-looking website.
The up-front payment requested can be as high as a few thousand dollars. If you pay, you will not receive the prize, and you will never see your money again. If you provide your personal details, they may be used for further fraudulent activity such as identity crime.
Example: Plumeria Avenue Tour Scratchie example ( PDF 170.16 KB )
Warning signs
- You receive a letter or brochure in your mailbox which includes scratchie cards. Often there will be two cards – one is a losing card and the other has a second or third prize win.
- The scratchies will say you have to call the company to claim the prize.
- If you call the organisation they may claim that the scratchies were sent to you in error however you can pay a fee to enter the competition or become a customer to make the win valid.
- You are asked to send a fee or bank account details to collect your prize. You may be asked to send personal identification as well.
- The trader offering the prize claims the offer has government approval. This is often accompanied by a request for the payment of taxes linked to the prize.
Protect yourself
If someone asks you to pay money up-front in order to receive a prize or winnings, it’s almost always a scam.
Have you been scammed?
If you think you have provided your account details to a scammer, contact your bank or financial institution immediately.
We encourage you to report scams to the ACCC (in NZ to the Department of Internal Affairs) via the report a scam page. This helps us to warn people about current scams, monitor trends and disrupt scams where possible. Please include details of the scam contact you received, for example, email or screenshot.
We also provide guidance on protecting yourself from scams and where to get help.
In New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs has a record of various types of scams. These fraudulent activities (or scams) include:
Malaysian Travel Scratchie Scams
Psychic and Secret Society Scams
Here is the full list of known scams from the Department of Internal Affairs of known fraudulent operators for you to be aware of. https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Services-Anti-Spam-Postal-scams
Please tell anyone and everyone that you know about this to make sure that more of our friends and family don't lose money, we work hard enough to get our money without seeing it taken from us like this.
