Football lottery letter is a scam
Postal scam letters, seemingly offering people the chance to win large amounts of money in online football lotteries, have been received by households in the isles.
Lerwick resident Andrew Chalmers is one person who has received a letter, said to be from the “International FIFA World Cup Online Lottery, Australia”.
He said he googled the name and was immediately alerted to the fact the organisation was being investigated by the Suffolk Police fraud action department.
Some letters give a false London contact while others, purporting to be from the “Euromillions FIFA World Cup Super Lottery, Switzerland”, give a false Aberdeen address.
SIC trading standards team leader David Marsh said similar scams had been operating for years, and it was generally just the name of the lottery which changed from time to time.
He said: “The main thing to remember is that you can’t possibly be a winner in a lottery which you didn’t enter.
“As always, we’re very happy for people to contact us if they’re concerned or unsure about any such letters, phone calls or emails which they receive.”
If anyone has any queries they can contact the SIC trading standards department on (01595) 744887 or email trading.standards@shetland.gov.uk
Charles L. Gallagher
Folks beware this is just one of many scams on the go. Here’s an email one on the go, as I was standing at Holmsgarth waiting as the Ferry docked at 07:20hrs on Monday morning everyone in my address book was receiving an email purporting to come from me and that I was in Antwerp for a Conference and that my luggage and passport had been stolen. So beware folks and make sure that you regularly change your password and I would also recommend that you use the maximum number of letters, numbers and other allowed symbols to make it as difficult as possible to hack into. Best of luck and I hope that it doesn’t happen to you for whilst I did not loose any banking info (non on my computer) I have wasted three days recovering all the info I lost.
David Spence
Another scam that is quite common and people with little knowledge of computers and alike can easily fall into their trap.
This scam is based on a phone call from what they call themselves ‘ The Microsoft Technical Team ‘ usually in a very distinctive Indian (as in country) voice. They say your computer has been hacked into by people trying to get information about you (what irony lol).
The scam works like this :-
1. They phone you up pertaining to be from the Microsoft Technical Team
2. They instruct you to do various command instructions through Windows Command Prompt Screen to prove they can identify your computers Windows Serial Number
3. They ask you to go to a website and download so-called software which will protect your computer.
4. (This is the scam part) Once they have allegedly installed this software onto your computer, they then charge you for the software (despite them saying their services were free).
5. Once they have your credit card details, Bank Account Details to pay for this alleged software, they are free to use this information to commit further crimes using your card or bank details, where it will be you who will be the worse off financially and other ways.
If you get a call like this, just hang up straight away.
Johan Adamson
I had a phone call from my bank saying someone had been trying to take money out of my account on a sunday at tea time. He said I had to phone back to tell them it wasnt me, but I said that I was telling him it wasnt me so couldnt he just correct it while he was on the line without me phoning back? The background was too quiet to be a call centre, it sounds busy. He was trying to get me to phone so he could pick up my passwords etc by listening in. Flumox them by saying you will look at it later on-line.