Co Tyrone pensioner is swindled out of £38k in ‘lottery win’ scam
A CO Tyrone pensioner has been scammed out of almost £40,000 after being wrongly told they had won the lottery.
They were promised winnings of £1.3m — but it was a con by fraudsters.
The case emerged as the PSNI revealed a series of scams have been reported in the past week.
Chief Superintendent Simon Walls said: “We continue to receive reports of scams as displayed in the recent examples which I would like to draw the public’s attention to.”
In the Dungannon incident, an older person was targeted by an international online postcode lottery scam. The scammers requested the victim send them a small amount of money to receive their winnings of £1.3m.
This correspondence continued with additional sums of money requested on each occasion, and a minor amount returned from the scammers.
In total £38,000 has been forwarded to the scammers since November 2019.
Mr Walls said that in another case in Belfast an older target was part of a Bitcoin scam.
He added: “Attention was drawn to this when they recently attended their bank and attempted to transfer £5,000.
“The victim believed they were part of a recovery agency scheme where the company transfers a small sum of money into their account and the target then transfers a larger sum out.”
Ac c o r d i n g to Mr Wal l s , £60,000 has been lost to this scam since July 2020.
He added: “No matter what type of scam it is, and the different methods employed, a common element shared by scammers is their only aim is to take money from people and they will go to great lengths to trick people and take advantage of their vulnerability and good faith.
“I can’t stress enough — never ever disclose your personal or banking details to anyone over the phone or on email, no matter how convincing they sound to you.
“If you have received a call of this kind, or if you’re concerned by unsolicited calls, emails or letters then please report it.”
‘I can’t stress this enough — never disclose personal or bank details over phone or email’