Fraudulent Lottery – How One SMS Can Cost Thousands of Hryvnias
Lottery and prize fraud is most often carried out through two common schemes aimed at extorting money from citizens. This was reported by the patrol police.
In one scheme, a person receives an unexpected phone call, email, message, or SMS from someone claiming to be an employee of a government agency, a representative of a well-known organization, or even a celebrity. The victim is informed about an alleged win of a large sum of money or a valuable prize.
After that, the scammer tries to gain trust and explains that to receive the winnings, it is necessary to first transfer a small amount of money to pay a tax on the prize or a fee for processing documents. People who follow these instructions send money but do not receive the promised winnings and lose the funds spent on fictitious taxes and fees.
Another scheme involves sending the victim an unexpected payment receipt or notification of a money transfer. Along with this comes an instruction to deposit the received funds into an account and immediately return part of the amount to the sender allegedly to cover taxes or other fees.
After a few weeks, it turns out that the receipt or transfer was forged. At the same time, the money the person has already transferred to the scammers cannot be recovered. As a result, the victim not only loses their own money but is also forced to reimburse the bank for the amount of the invalid transfer.
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