By Glenn Hicks

Lottery scam makes the rounds in region

Sep 11, 2018 | 1:44 PM

A Weirdale resident is warning others that scammers claiming to represent the Stars Lottery may be trying their luck in the area.

The man got a call on his cell phone Saturday morning and was told he’d won over $4 million dollars and a new Mercedes Benz.

The scammer wanted him to deposit almost $400 into an account at a big-name bank so they could activate the process to give him the money and deliver the car.

“These guys were persistent,” Tony Kosowan told paNOW. “They wanted me to go to the bank Saturday by a certain time. Through the weekend and Monday morning, I must have had up to 40 calls from them.”

Kosowan said he ignored the messages until deciding to take one of the calls Monday to let them know the jig was up.

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“I laughed and told the guy ‘you’ve wasted enough of my time, I’m busy, I know it’s a scam’ and this fellow had quite an accent and gave me his name as Jack Mckenzie of all things,” he said.

But Kosowan said initially the whole scam effort was very believable and he was captivated until his lady friend, who was listening to the call, whispered to him that “no one has to pay anything if they’ve won a genuine prize.”

“He must have talked to me for 40 minutes and had all sorts of names and information and was able to say where I’d shopped and what sorts of lottery tickets I buy,” he said. Kosowan said he later called the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre to report the phone numbers and bank account details he’d been given by the fraudster.

Phone scammers often try their luck claiming to represent a lottery organization and Stars is just one of several credible names they try to associate with.

The Stars Lottery website makes it clear the public is never asked to send money to claim a prize.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow