Lottery scam exposed in South Africa

A 26-year-old South African man who tried to convince newspapers, police and lottery officials that he had been robbed of a Rands 33 million winning lottery ticket could be in trouble after his false report was exposed.

The Durban resident claimed that he was robbed of his life-changing lottery ticket by bogus uniformed policemen a week ago, triggering a major investigation which subsequently revealed that in fact the ticket was bought elsewhere and had been legitimately cashed by the real winner, recorded by CCTV on October 14.

The Wartburg store where the ticket had been purchased, and where it was presented for checking by the real ticket holder was able to give police detailed evidence of the winner and his claim, but precautionary measures flowing from the investigation meant that the real winner’s bank account was temporarily frozen by the police at one point.

Wartburg Spar manager Mark Kendall-Ball told newspaper reporters:

“We never had such a big amount won here so we didn’t really know what to do. We called the lottery hotline and they said he needed to come to Durban with his ticket. I know it was his [the real owner] ticket because he had written his name on the back. I lent him R200 to get to Durban.”

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