£123m EuroMillions jackpot turns out to be a scam for single mum who thought she’d won a share
A SINGLE mum was duped out of thousands of pounds in a lottery scam staged by a bogus winner claiming they had won the £123million Euromillions jackpot.
The victim, 44, was told she would be given a £500,000 slice of the jackpot if she sent the conman a loan of £5,000 for his mum’s open-heart surgery in Pakistan.
He claimed his mum was too ill to wait for the funds from the jackpot to come in.
The mum, from Birmingham, didn’t realise the third biggest prize in UK lotto history had not even been claimed yet when she handed over £4,000, Birmingham Live reported.
Camelot, the lottery organiser, said the real winner came forward to claim last Tuesday’s prize just three days ago.
She had already coughed up £4,000 by the time her brother, a prominent businessman in the area, agreed to step in.
He said: “My sister is gutted and ashamed. We are rallying round, trying to lift her spirits.”
The victim, who’s identity was not revealed, said: “I wasn’t naive, I was stupid. In this day and age, I find it really hard not to help people.”
‘I WAS STUPID’
Her brother confronted the scam artist at a McDonald’s in Solihull with the final £1,000 instalment.
The “smooth” fraudster was weeping as he was handed the money in a transaction captured on CCTV.
The brother added: “Half the time, he was in tears… ’I can’t believe what you guys have done’ he told us. ‘I don’t even know you guys, and you’ve done this for me when my own friends won’t give me a tenner’.
“Yes, I smelled a rat, but, by then, my sister was in too deep.”
The businesman managed to take a photo of the individuals’ driving licence as proof of identity.
Even though the name could be fake, the image is of the man who claimed to have scooped up the £123m jackpot.
The image of the licence has been sent to Action Fraud, West Midlands Police have been informed and NatWest Bank have the details of the account the victim’s money was sent to.
‘I SMELLED A RAT’
The conman swindled the woman after entering the business where she worked on June 13 with the fake ticket.
He said his ticket was already checked at the nearby Sainsbury’s and the staff told him to phone Camelot immediately.
He said he didn’t trust the supermarket workers and begged the vulnerable mum and a male colleague to use their phone.
Then he claimed his English was too poor to understand the information and passed the phone to the mum who said the numbers and the date on ticket checked out.
They were informed on the phone by a “posh and English” voice the bogus winner would need to leave immediately to collect the multi-million prize in Watford – 100miles away.
Both of them pulled together the pay for the stranger’s £100 fare and another £140 for his Wolverhampton Travelodge as he did not want to return to his Birmingham home.
It was then he asked for the loan for the surgery saying the good deed would be rewarded with the half-a-million “thank you”.
The victim was convinced she had become rich overnight up until on Tuesday afternoon moments before the conman who was meant to delivery the money when his mobile “died”.
A Camelot spokesman said: “We are aware that there are individuals and organisations that attempt to obtain payment or personal details from people under a variety of pretexts.
“The National Lottery, winners of The National Lottery and other lotteries are sometimes falsely used as part of these scams.
“We would urge people to remember that, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
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“We would also like to remind people that the only place you can legitimately purchase National Lottery tickets or Scratchcards is from an official National Lottery retailer, so not to hand over money for a National Lottery product anywhere else.
“The National Lottery website provides security advice in respect of lottery ‘scams’ at www.national-lottery.co.uk/security
“As always, if any individual believes they are a victim of crime, they should contact their local police.”
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