News Alerts

A special message for visitors looking for advice:

We are currently receiving many frantic messages, from all over the world, from people who are being informed that they have won either the UK or the European Lotto.

We are unable to comment on individual cases, but direct you to the Office of Fair Trading website

This will help you to analyse the claims that have been made to you to see if they are genuine.

Generally a good rule is “if it appears to be too good to be true, it probably is!”

In our experience, no genuine Lottery would require you to send money to claim your prize. Never do that.

The only way you can win the UK Lottery is to buy a genuine ticket BEFORE the draw. You should never send money to someone asking for money AFTER the draw has been made. No winners are selected at random by their email address.

We hope this helps.

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Scam en Français?

Une arnaque circule en Europe par le biais d'Internet. Certains e-mails vous font croire que vous avez été sélectionné pour être l'heureux gagnant de plusieurs millions d'euros. Cette arnaque fait semblant d’avoir l’autorisation de Camelot, Virtual World Direct, e-lottery et le Lotteries Council.

Ces e-mails se réclament du Lotteries Council du Royaume-Uni, et mentionnent le nom de notre cadre supérieur Judith Horner.

Il s'agit d'une ARNAQUE.

Le seul moyen de gagner à la Loterie Nationale britannique est d'acheter un ticket authentique AVANT le tirage au sort.

Notre Loterie Nationale n'attribue pas de prix aux personnes ne résidant pas au Royaume-Uni et dont l'adresse e-mail, le nom ou l'adresse postale auraient été tirés au sort.

*N'envoyez pas d'argent à cette association, sous peine de ne jamais le récupérer.

The Lotteries Council n’approuve pas cette organisation

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Don't get caught!

Here is a typical letter from someone who did...

Dear Judith

I was informed on the 9/2/2007 that I had won a very large amount of money through VWD E-Lottery International by participants being randomly selected from World Wide Web site through a computer draw system.

Everything on the surface did look quite genuine because I had a name, a proper address and telephone number, so I replied to the e-mail.

Anyway to cut a long story short there were 3 companies involved inobtaining this package, the above mentioned company, Churchill Express the courier company and Larry Smith LLP an attorney in London that had to supplyme with an Affidavit for Truth and Claim due to a recent terrorism act so as to prove that the said winning monies were not being used for terrorism purposes, this was at a cost of £420.00.

I did like a fool pay the courier costs, but the courier then informed me that the UK Lotteries Council had seized the money because it was not accompanied by this Affidavit for Truth and Claim.

I now believe this to be a scam and really I should have thought of contacting you earlier to check as to whether there was any true in this.

Can you confirm that you have the said package and is there such a thing as an Affidavit for Truth and Claim.

Kind Regards
Name and address supplied

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Please note, the scammers are getting clever and hiding behind the names of genuine organisations like VWD and the Lotteries Council.

Don't be fooled!

You cannot win a lottery if you haven't entered it before the draw!

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If you have any further questions please email our executive officer, judith@lotteriescouncil.org.uk