Watch out for the Spanish lottery scam

TWO men and a woman have been arrested for a series of cons that allegedly netted them tens of thousands of euros from elderly people. 

The trio – aged between 36, 38 and 50 – were detained in Malaga accused of at least five frauds in A Coruña, Orense, Zaragoza and La Línea de la Concepcion (Cadiz). 

They are alleged to have conned a total of €60,000 from their victims. 

The investigation started after two complaints filed with the National Police in A Coruña about the loss of €41,000 and €10,000 respectively. 

According to National Police, the trio used the ‘old trick’ of selling their victims a supposedly winning lottery ticket that they could not cash out. 

The con artists, would show their victim the ‘winning ticket’ and compare it to a fake list of prize winning numbers. 

They would then accompany the victim to their home or bank, collect the cash and hand over the ticket, which would later turn out to be worthless. 

Police say that although it is a well-known scam that has been around for years, numerous new cases are detected each year. 

Officers visit centres for elderly people to give talks warning them of the scam and urge victims to come forward so they can investigate and try to recover their money.