Scam Alert – Lottery Winning
This alert is related to a type of scam that can happen when you are contacted to say you have
won the lottery. Most often the individuals who receive these calls have never played the lottery.
The winner of the lottery will be sent money, which is usually a bank issued check. The
individual is then instructed to negotiate the check and forward a portion of the monies to
another individual for one of these reasons:
 You need to pay a fee to collect your lottery winnings.
 You need to forward money to another winner for their winnings.
Scammers often tell the individual to return the money through either Western Union, wire
transfer, bank official checks, or Green Dot Cards, etc. Once money is sent there is usually no
way to recover the funds. If money is sent through Western Union the scammer is very hard to
trace because all you need to give is a name and address and the scammer picks the funds up at a
different location. Often the names and addresses given are not the scammers’s actual name and
address. A Green Dot card is an electronic gift card that can be purchased by anyone at various
locations. The information for the card can be given to the scammer over the phone or via email
and then they are able to use that information to obtain the value of the card.
The checks involved in these scams are usually fraudulent. A scam check usually takes about
3 days to be returned. However, it can take up to 90 days to be notified that a check is fraudulent.
The individual negotiating the check would be out the money and be responsible for clearing the
amount with the Bank. Since the money is untraceable there is usually no chance that the funds
will ever be recovered.
Things to watch for after “winning” the lottery:
 Being contacted that you have won the lottery, when you have never played it.
 Being told that you need to pay a fee to collect your lottery winnings.
 Being told that you need to send money to another winner because their winnings are
included in the amount of your check.
 Not receiving the full amount of your winnings in one check, but being told that you will
receive multiple checks over the next couple of days or weeks.
If ever you feel that you are being or have been scammed contact First Columbia Bank at 570784-1660 for help in what your next steps should be.
February 20, 2015