Issue Date:  -  Thursday, 8 May 2003

Overseas lottery warning - You could be a loser instantly

The Consumer Protection Commissioner is issuing an urgent warning after his Department received a tip off that a dubious overseas lottery is about to target Western Australia with saturation newspaper advertising.

"ELG or the European Lottery Guild has been making widespread enquiries to find out the names and contact details of newspapers within WA and we think they intend to launch large advertising campaigns in the Classified sections of papers to sell syndicate shares.

"We are extremely concerned about this and wish to alert the community so they can be forearmed when the advertising hits", Patrick Walker said.

It is illegal under the Gaming Commission Act to advertise foreign lotteries or to sell and distribute tickets.

ELG will allegedly offer to sell shares in syndicates of big prize overseas lotteries to Western Australian consumers.

The penalty for advertising and conducting an unlawful lottery can range from $2,000 to $5,000 under the Gaming Commission Act.

"In addition to this, other risks to consumers are:

* You don't get a ticket - it's a syndicate share

* You must rely entirely on the operators to be honest

* You can not easily check if you have won

* You can't check the legitimacy of the operators

* Lottery type operations outside of Australia are almost always beyond the jurisdiction of our state and federal authorities

Do not participate in this or any other overseas lottery offer", Mr. Walker said.

Some good advice:

* If you want to have a flutter, consider playing local Lotto - Australia's laws and regulations are stringent and you wont get ripped off

* Do not be conned by the urgency of the offers or the amounts of money or other prizes supposedly available

* These operators require your credit card or bank account details - you do not know how much they may take out of your account or where else your personal information will end up

* Small amounts of money (such as $30) often seem an acceptable gamble to many people - scammers rely on this and make millions of dollars

* These types of operations harvest information from participants and pass it on to other schemes so you will more than likely be inundated with other unwanted offers in the future

Check all our named scams at WA ScamNet by visiting www.docep.wa.gov.au or telephoning 1300 30 40 54.