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The syndicate is a copycat of an existing lottery — EuroMillions — run by about nine European countries. It sends letters to its targets informing them that they have “won” astounding amounts in a jackpot draw. The victims would not have entered the draw or bought tickets.
They are sworn to secrecy and told that they must claim their prize within a short space of time, usually two months or risk losing it.
In a series of cleverly orchestrated communications, they are then progressively milked of increasing amounts of cash until they realise that they have been caught in a scam.
The official website of the original EuroMillions Lottery, [email protected], based in Spain, warns that thousands of people around the world fall prey to fraudsters claiming to represent the lottery, every month. There is also another website, http://www.euro-millions.com/ hosted in the UK and gives the same warning.
Chronicle caught up with five Zimbabwean victims of the syndicate. The victims’ letters all had postage stamps from Los Angeles in the US.
Ms Victoria Ncube of Harare got a letter from the bogus syndicate on 10 October, informing her that she had won one million euros in a draw held on 27 September.
“You have been approved for a lump sum payment of one million euros shared among 24 international winners in the latest Euromillones draw held on 27 September 2011.
“Your fund is now deposited with a security company and insured in your name. EuroMillions Lottery International Protection Policy requires you to keep this award from public notice until your claim has been processed and money remitted to your account as this is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by participants,” read part of the letter.
The letter then directed Ms Ncube to contact a Dr Franz Lampel, who was said to be the foreign operations manager of Eagle Global Service EU, on telephone number 0043 676 413 5679 or fax 0043 1253 6722 1926, for instructions on how to claim her prize.
She was instructed in the letter to claim her prize before 19 December, failure to which it would be returned to the lottery fund.
“I was overjoyed when I got the letter, which I thought was the answer to my prayers for financial stability. I called Dr Lampel straight away and he said I should send him 900 euros to enable him to open an account in the UK where my money would be deposited,” she said.
Ms Ncube said she sent the money through Western Union on 20 October.
“After acknowledging receipt of the money, Dr Lampel said I needed to send a further 900 euros to insure the money so that it could be recovered if it got lost in transit. I did. He then said I needed to send a final payment of 2 000 euros which would be used for international clearances and vetting to prove I was the winner. He said I should also send him details of my local bank account,” said Ms Ncube.
She said a friend told her she had been conned when she asked for the money from him.
“He showed me the warning on the EuroMillions website. It specifically said if a jackpot winner is asked to pay anything to claim a prize, they would be victims of fraudsters as the lottery took care of all expenses in dispensing prize money. He said if I had sent them my bank account details, the next thing would have been for me to find every cent having been withdrawn,” she said.
Ms Lorraine Charles who lives in the Bulawayo city centre got a similar letter telling her she had won 785 790 euros.
However, she said she knew it was a scam and therefore sent Dr Lampel a message telling him to try his luck with more gullible people.
She said many other people could be paying money to the fake syndicate without telling anyone, thinking they would be rich soon.
The other three victims, all elderly people from Bulawayo, whose families brought their names forward, refused to believe they were being conned.
“Young man, I will only believe you if I see the story in print,” said a man (70) from Hillside suburb.
Contacted for comment, the police spokesperson for Bulawayo, Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo, said the police were yet to get reports about the syndicate.
“We have not received incidents of that nature. However, we urge people to exercise extreme caution should they receive such correspondence. They should ask themselves how they can win a competition that they have not entered,” said Insp Moyo.
The genuine EuroMillions is a transnational lottery, launched on 7 February 2004 by lotteries in France, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The first draw was held on Friday 13 February 2004 in Paris. Initially, only the UK, France, and Spain participated, with the Austrian, Belgian, Irish, Luxembourg, Portuguese and Swiss lotteries joining for the 8 October 2004 draw.
Online Reporter