Scam letters

I have just received a letter from Spain which stated that I have won $615,000 in the Elgardo lottery. This letter also states the numbers I had which are equivalent to our Super 5 lottery and also the ticket number. It also states that this lottery is held once a year internationally and that I have been picked up from about 25,000 participants.

I have to collect the money before a date in May and if I do not the money will go to the Ministry of Economy in Spain. With this letter, which also bears the legend Elgardo Loteria Primitiva, there is attached a form from a company named Santa Lucia Security Co. wherein I have to fill in details about myself and to give my bank account. This letter is duly signed and stamped.

It is so realistic that it temporarily hypnotised me. Being not so stupid I soon realised that this was another scam. Because how can I have won, not having bought any tickets? Therefore, I searched the internet for this security company and a site from the San Francisco Police Department appeared which speaks about this Hispanic fraud and that they are still investigating it.

I continued searching and came up with another site in which people from around the world have fallen victim to this scam. A lady from Australia, who was speaking on behalf of her grandfather, who also suffers from memory loss, explained how her grandfather phoned this company to enquire for more details and the lady at the other end was so nice that she lured him to deposit amounts of money for the bank transfer until his credit card ran dry. He lost $6,000, according to his niece. There were others from America to Asia who fell for this scam. This has been going on since last year.

I urge readers to watch out for such letters and when they receive something similar from Spain to throw it into the bin.