Carstairs man warns of football lottery scam

John Morris (68) received a letter at his home stating that he had won £700,000 in the Fifa Euromillions International Postcode Lottery.

However, the initial joy of winning a life-changing sum of money quickly turned to suspicion when he picked up the phone and called the telephone number to claim his “prize”.

John said: “The letter I received looked very professional but when I phoned up they asked me for one per cent of my winnings to be sent to them so they could release the money.

“I spoke to an Asian man on the phone and he asked me whether I wanted the money paid into my bank account or by cheque.

“I never gave my bank details out over the phone so I said by cheque and then he said that I had to give one per cent of my cash over.

“Eventually I said to him to keep £100,000 and just send me £600,000!

“I knew it was a scam by then and when I spoke to the Citizens Advice Bureau they said that the public should be aware of this.”

A quick search on the internet proves that this scam is neither new nor simply confined to Clydesdale.

In fact in 2010 a woman in Southampton lost £47,000 having been duped into thinking she had won £1.5 million.

Other cases have been discovered from Fife, Essex, Braintree and Llanelli in Wales.

John is now hoping that as many people as possible are made aware of the scam before someone loses thousands of pounds as a result.

He added: “To be honest I am quite a lucky person.

“I won a good amount of money on The Postcode Lottery a few years ago and if there’s ever a raffle I’m usually guaranteed to walk out with something.

“That was one of the reasons why I thought I had won but thankfully the alarm bells started ringing before it was too late.

“When I Googled the scam i couldn’t believe the people all over the country who have been affected by this.

“I’ve spoken to my friends and neighbours about this and I’m hoping no-one falls victim to it.

“It’s disgusting and it has to stop.”