Scam emails are distressingly common, but scams that use old-fashioned snail mail still proliferate. In one example currently active in Victoria, Queensland, SA and NT, travel-themed scratch cards are used to try and con people out of their money.The scam takes the form of a scratch card sent in the mail, which appears to offer a prize of $180,000. However, when you try to redeem the prize, the scammers ask for a “wire transfer fee” totalling thousands of dollars. This in itself highlights clearly that a scam is in operation: as the governmental SCAMwatch site notes, “Ask yourself why you have to pay upfront money for a prize when the sum could be deducted from your winnings.”
I trust most Lifehacker readers would be alert enough to detect this scam, but it’s worth keeping an eye on any of your lottery-keen relatives (confession: I’m thinking of my grandmother here). At the same time, you can remind them not to fall for the fake Microsoft/Telstra support scam.
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