Treasurer warns Bay Staters about winning lottery scam

State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg is warning that someone posing as her has been sending people fraudulent emails claiming that one of last year’s Powerball winners wants to donate money to them and 99 other “lucky beneficiaries.”

Goldberg’s office was contacted this week by three Massachusetts residents who had received emails claiming that Mavis Wanczyk, who had the sole winning ticket last August for a $758 million Powerball jackpot, “has deem (sic) it necessary to donate the sum of $758,700 USD each to you and Ninety-nine other lucky beneficiaries, in fulfillment of giving out 10 percent of her winnings as donation grant,” said Chandra Allard, a spokesman for Goldberg.

The emails continue, “Mind you, this is not a regular circulation, for more insight contact her via ... ,” and provide two apparently false email addresses for Wanczyk, as well as a link to what appears to be a USA Today story about the former hospital worker’s winnings “for confirmation of this great news.”

It is unclear how many people the emails were sent to and whether anyone has fallen prey to the scam, Allard said, but she urged people not to contact the addresses and instead report the emails to Goldberg’s office at 617-367-6900.

“Our goal is to ensure that no Massachusetts citizen is taken advantage of as part of this scam,” Goldberg said in a statement yesterday.

Wanczyk could not be reached yesterday for comment. But after she won last August, police warned people not to fall for the social media schemes that already were cropping up, attempting to exploit her identity in order to scam people out of money.