CCPC Cautions Public against Online Notification Prize Scam.
2020-07-01
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) would like to warn the general public to be cautious of a New Zealand Lotto Award scam which is circulating online requesting consumers to submit their personal information with intent to extort money from people’s accounts.According to preliminary investigations conducted by the Commission, the scam indicates that the Acculotto Group Organization in collaboration with the National New Zealand Lottery had conducted a first promotional draw on 26th June,2020 in which eight (8) winners were selected for a lump sum of two million five hundred thousand Euro (€2,500,000.00), out of over two million five hundred thousand (2,500,000) email addresses collected worldwide from individuals and companies using a computer ballot system.
The Commission wishes to state that the notification in question is untrue and that there was no such draw conducted by the National New Zealand lottery contrary to what the scam purports.
Thus, the Commission is cautioning the general public not to offer or disclose their personal details such as age, sex, name, address, contact number, nationality, country of residence, National Registration Card (N.R.C), passport,occupation and bank account information.
Further, the public is urged to diligently ascertain the authenticity of any online notification before disclosing any of the aforementioned details as failure to do so may expose them to internet scams and fraudsters.
CCPC also wishes to warn all business enterprises who are perpetuating the dissemination of content aimed at misleading consumers to desist from engaging into such conduct as that is punishable under the Competition and Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) No.24 of 2010.