Beware of Deceptive Lottery Offers!
How Often Have You Received an Email With These Words…?
"YOU HAVE WON US$1,200,343!". This promise (together with your name personalized somewhere in the headline) is usually followed by a request to send money (US$30 and sometimes a lot more) as "payment tax" or a "processing fee" before you receive your "prize money".
How often have you or your friends actually received the "prize money" you were promised? Let's face it. Never. How can you possibly win a prize in a Lottery you never even entered in the first place? These kinds of offers are deceptive and worthless. So be warned.
Overseas Subscribers Agents, in common with other legitimate agents for overseas Government Lotteries, continue to be deeply concerned by the proliferation of lottery scams offered through direct mail and email around the world.
Not only do the criminal opportunists who operate these scams deceive thousands of people and steal money from them under false pretences, but they tarnish the integrity of the entire legitimate Government Lottery Industry. More than one scam operator has even copied the logo and materials of OSA and its affiliates to carry out their criminal activity in the name of this well-established and entirely reputable company.
When you win a Prize in a Lottery you have legitimately entered through OSA, you'll be called and asked only how and where you want your full cash winnings to be sent. The remittance of your Prize Money to the bank of your choice is a FREE SERVICE offered by OSA. You’ll never be asked by OSA to send money first as a "processing fee" or "tax" to claim your prize. Only scam Lottery operators do this.
YOUR POSITION IS CLEAR: NEVER SEND MONEY TO CLAIM A PRIZE FROM A LOTTERY YOU DON’T KNOW -- OR HAVE NEVER ENTERED.
Should you receive any deceptive mailing offer promising you a large cash prize "you've already won", please send a copy of these materials either to your local police authority or to scamwatch@osalottos.com so we can post them on this website.
If you're ever in any doubt at all about a Lottery offer you receive by phone, postal mail or email, please check first with OSA. You can refer to the scam samples we have compiled below, or log on to http://osalotteries.net to chat with one of OSA’s customer support operators—any time 24 hours a day.
419 Legal are very active & most helpful in stopping fraudulent Lottery operators and their deceptive websites.
You can report incidents of such fraudulent activity to 419 Legal. Click Here for more
The Federal Trade Commission has stepped up cross-border law enforcement and increased public/private sector cooperation to identify, stop, and combat SPAM. It enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database accessible to and used by thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
To file a complaint, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). Or, use the complaint form at: http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm.