Spanish Lottery Scams
Play La Primitiva Online • Play El Gordo Online
Beware of illegal organisations that use the good name of the loteríanacional.com to defraud individuals around the world. These organization contact the potential victim through an electronic communication (usually an email) in which official logos and web links are used to make them look authentic.
The email sent to the potential victim informs them that they have won a large sum of money in the Spanish national lottery, with official terms, such as El Gordo (The Fat One) or La Primitiva being used to make them sound convincing. The communications then ask the victim to contact an “agent” who will process the prize they have won.
When the victim contacts the agent, the agent asks them to deposit a certain amount of money in a bank account to cover things like insurance and bank expenses. The bank accounts are opened by the criminal organisations using false identities. Once the money has been deposited in the bank account by the victim, the agent disappears with it, leaving the “lottery winner” emotionally injured and financially deprived.
The criminal organisations responsible for these lottery scams operate mainly from Germany, Belgium, Holland, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Sweden, and primarily set out to defraud Spanish or ibero-american people. However, lottery scams have also been reported across Asia and America.
We strongly advise readers to exercise extreme caution, and would remind you that Spanish National Lottery prizes are always tax free. Do not trust any organisation that asks you to pay money in order to claim a lottery prize. It is also important to remember that, in order to win any National Lottery prize you must first have bought a ticket. The rule of thumb therefore is to report any organization that offers you a lottery prize when you haven’t bought a ticket or which requests that you pay them money in advance to claim such a prize.
