Bogus Isle of Man “Receiver”

This notice is issued by the Financial Supervision Commission (“the Commission”) in accordance with the powers conferred upon it under Section 30 of the Financial Services Act 2008.

Bogus Isle of Man “Receiver”

The Financial Supervision Commission has been made aware of correspondence regarding a purported lottery win of £850,000. Within this correspondence reference is made to an Isle of Man address that does not exist.

In the correspondence it states that the parcel with the winner’s cheque and other prizes will be delivered by a courier firm who requires the winner to fill in the “Delivery Request Form” with personal details and decide which “Delivery Category” you want to use and to pay the charges before delivery of the parcel. The courier firm then states that “…we only operate on pay before delivery thus the payment of any delivery option you have chosen should made through Western Union Money Transfer to our account officer with the details below:

Name of Receiver: Jedynak K. Bogdan Address of Receiver: 70 Mount Havelock, Douglas. UK…” (sic)

Following research by the Commission we can confirm that there is a genuine “Mount Havelock, Douglas” in the Isle of Man, however, there is no number “70” at Mount Havelock. Further research has established that there is no Western Union outlet on the Isle of Man.

The Commission has been unable to establish any genuine connection between the above details and the Isle of Man.

Under the circumstances the Commission feels that this correspondence is being issued in order to tempt the recipient into becoming the victim of a so called “Lottery Scam”. A useful explanation of how such “Lottery Scams” work may be found on the following external website:

http://fraudaid.com/ScamSpam/Lottery/

OR

Is being issued to tempt the recipient into becoming the victim of an Advance Fee Fraud – see explanatory notice issued by the Commission at:

http://www.iomfsa.im/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/iomfsa/westafricanfraud.xml&menuid=11570

OR

Is an attempt at gaining personal data from the recipient in order to steal their identity – see explanatory notice issued by the Commission at:

http://www.iomfsa.im/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/iomfsa/identitytheft.xml

Also see information issued by the Isle of Man Office of the Data Protection Supervisor at:

http://www.gov.im/lib/news/odps/yourinformationy.xml

Under the circumstances, the Commission would strongly urge that persons in receipt of correspondence matching the above description exercise the greatest possible caution before proceeding, bearing in mind the contents of this public notice.

Any persons who are already involved in any dealings resulting from correspondence matching the above description and who have concerns should contact the Enforcement Division on +44 1624 689314 or by email to fsc@gov.im.

Any persons who have paid funds to, or disclosed personal financial details in relation to correspondence matching the above description should consider contacting their local Police Fraud Unit without delay.

FSC reference: CD/10/2009