A 71-year-old man in Singapore was left completely broke after allegedly falling victim to an online lottery fraud on Facebook, local media outlet Mothership reported, adding that he lost more than S$21,000 (around Rs 16 lakh). According to the outlet, the man, identified only as Mr Yang, saw an advertisement on Facebook in late August promising guaranteed lottery payouts.
He was curious and called the phone number listed in the post. Although the line didn’t go through initially, a caller got back to him a few days later in early September.
The scammers claimed that they had internal connections within Singapore Pools who could leak winning 4D numbers ahead of official draws.
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They then asked for advance payments, but when Mr Yang explained he couldn’t afford them, they lowered the fee to S500 to open an account, along with an extra S500 for five sets of 4D numbers.
They assured him that he would walk away with a S$300,000 (around Rs 2.2 crore) jackpot. However, none of the numbers hit during the draw on September 5.
When Mr Yang confronted the caller, the scammer tried to deceive him again. They told Mr Yang that there had been a mix-up, declaring that he had actually won the top prize. The message included a photo of a check written out for S$300,000.
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They again insisted Mr Yang pay various administrative fees and taxes to release the funds. Over the following days, he made several bank transfers, including a single sum of S$7,840.
He sent a total of S$21,688 by mid-September. But received nothing. It was then he realised that he had been tricked and lodged a report with the police.
According to the media outlet, Mr Yang is currently out of work and revealed that he can now only afford basic staples like instant noodles and bread to survive day-to-day.
As mentioned in the report, local authorities have confirmed that investigations into the incident are currently ongoing.
