Twickenham Residents Stung by Lottery Scam

1.08.56pm GMT Mon 11th Jun 2007

Some residents have been targeted by a fraudulent Spanish lottery claiming to offer prizes of hundreds of thousands of Euros (and pounds) provided 'winners' send an initial 'tax ' payment. One lady in Hampton sent 3,000 euros and never heard anymore from the company.

Vincent Cable took the issue up with the local trading standards officers as well as the Office of Fair Trading and has been told that 140,000 UK consumers fall for such scams, losing an average £4,800 each (though there are bigger scams in the form of bogus holiday clubs, high risk investments and 'get rich quick' schemes).

Vincent Cable said that his Hampton constituent had "complied with quite a reasonable sounding letter - as so many of these scams are - telling her that she had won the lottery but needed to pay the tax. Of course, the fraudsters' walked off with the money".

"I have become concerned at the sheer volume of people who come to me either having been tricked themselves or to protect others who might be. If residents notify me or the local trading standards officers or the government's scam helpline (08454 040506) it is possible to close these fraudulent operations but rarely do people get their money back".