Secretary of State Cathy Cox Warns Georgians About Fraudulent International Lottery Offers
 

ATLANTA …Secretary of State Cathy Cox today urged Georgians to avoid falling prey to “prize patrol” offers arriving in the mail and over the Internet from “International Lottery” officials.

After receiving a number of calls from concerned Georgians who have received these offers in the mail, Secretary Cox warned Georgians of foreign lottery offers containing claims like the following:

 "Congratulations!
You may receive a certified check for up to $400,000 U.S. CASH!
One Lump sum! Tax free! Your odds to WIN are 1-6."

 or

 "Hundreds of U.S. citizens win every week using our secret system!
You can win as much as you want!"

The truth is that most of these scammers won’t buy any lottery tickets at all, but if they do they keep the "winnings" for themselves while using the victims' bank account numbers to make unauthorized withdrawals and credit card information to run up fraudulent charges.

 “While these offers sound great, they are fraudulent and illegal,” said Secretary Cox. “These solicitations violate U.S. law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail. Georgians should ignore all mail and phone solicitations from foreign lottery promotions. If you receive what looks like lottery material from a foreign country, alert your local postmaster or call our office,” Cox added.

The Federal Trade Commission says law enforcement authorities are intercepting millions of foreign lottery mailings sent into the U.S. in which consumers, lured by prospects of instant wealth, are responding to these solicitations to the tune of $120 million a year.  For more information on these or other consumer scams, call the Secretary of State’s Securities Division at (404) 656-3920.