If you receive a call from overseas asking you to participate in a survey about casinos or gambling or inviting you to a party or other social event, SCAMwatch advises you to hang up immediately—it’s a scam. Even if you receive a raffle ticket or any other authentic-looking document such as a Hang Seng cheque, don’t be fooled—you haven’t won HK$350 000 (around AUD$48 000) or any other prize!

To make the offer seem legitimate, phony Australian contact details are provided. Once you respond, the scammers will keep contacting you asking for money to cover the taxes and administration costs of releasing the winnings to you. They are also likely to ask you for bank details or your Medicare or driver’s licence numbers.

SCAMwatch has previously warned consumers about these types of scams—stay one step ahead of scammers by being aware of their tactics:

Protect yourself

  • Hang up on ‘too good to be true’ telemarketing offers.
  • Be suspicious of any unexpected prizes from telemarketers, letters or spammers.
  • Do not send any money or pay any fee to claim a prize or lottery winnings.
  • Ask yourself: if I have won so much money, why don't they take the money from my winnings?
  • Never give personal details to anyone you have not checked out first from an independent source. Internet searches can sometime
    provide extra information.
  • If a close friend or family member suddenly starts to transfer large sums of money overseas, you may wish to discuss this with them.
    If you think they are sending the money to a scammer, you may need to stop them.

Report

Report the matter to the ACCC via the report a scam page on SCAMwatch.

More information

Explore SCAMwatch for more information about lottery and competition scams (fake prizes) or requests for your account information ('phishing' scams), or money transfer scams or identity theft, as well as further tips on how to protect yourself.

Read more

Unexpected prize and lottery scams work by asking you to pay some sort of fee in order to claim your prize or winnings from a competition or lottery you never entered.