Pensioner’s warning over scam lottery win letter
A PENSIONER who got caught up in a sophisticated lottery scam has issued a warning to fellow Glasgow residents.
Frank Murray received a letter stating he had won a share of £62million through the Health Lottery.
He is one of dozens of people across the UK who have been targeted by fraudsters in the same scam.
When he received the letter earlier this month, the 75-year-old from Crosshill contacted the sender desperate to know how to claim his prize – a staggering £300,000.
Frank said: “I called up the guy on the letter – James Edwards.
“He said ‘oh yes, we’ll send out the cheque to you right away’.
“I didn’t receive anything at all so I phoned back the next week.
“Every time I phoned I couldn’t get through but he would call me back straight away. When I asked about the cheque he kept saying he had to talk to his ‘superiors’.”
After two weeks of phone calls and conversations with the ‘account manager’ claiming to be from the lottery scheme, he realised he was being conned.
“Eventually he said ‘yes, we can process it now but we will need £1000 from you for administration and the processing.’
“At that point I just got really angry. I knew it was a scam. It makes me sick, people who try to extort others.
“The thing is, I bet other people in Glasgow will have got these letters and I hope nobody has fallen for it but there will be.
“I want to make sure nobody gets caught out here.”
A spokeswoman from the Health Lottery said: “In March of this year we were made aware that this letter had been circulating in Scotland and accordingly reported the matter to Action Fraud UK.
“Our advice to recipients at that time was not to contact the number on the letter and to also contact Action Fraud UK.