Online Lottery Ticket Seller - Interlotto.com

[Slartibartfast]

http://www.interlotto.com/euro/

On the surface this site looks okay, it has plenty of scam lottery warnings even a link to 419legal. It has a 10 year registration

Deep down there are red flags concerning the secure pages (they are not on Verisigns lists). The validity of some of their claims over who can buy certain countries lottery tickets is disputed. The front page is very garish and smacks of "ladness". Camelot Group have stated they are not affiliated with Interlotto

This needs a trained experienced bit of research to confirm or deny it's validity.

[Nyla]

Problem is, in most countries, Overseas Subscriber Agents are technically legal. They are taking advantage of a huge legal loophole. For example, U.S. law prohibits residents from purchasing foreign lottery tickets by phone or by mail. That's a big federal no-no. However, there is nothing explicit in the law preventing me from contracting with a company to purchase and hold tickets, claim my prize on my behalf, and then give me the winnings. They are a very big gray area. They get around the restrictions by claiming you don't buy the tickets, they do. And as they are buying them "in person" (assuming any of these agents actually buy anything and don't just pocket the money straight out), they technically aren't violating the regulations in place in the countries hosting the lotteries. I doubt any of them are completely on the up and up, since nothing compelling is in place to force them to deal with their customers honestly, but it's not easy to say they're illegal, per se.

Simply not having SSL is no grounds, either. That's totally terrible web design, tempting of fate and putting the customers at huge risk of having their credit card details stolen, but it's not technically illegal or a violation of TOS.

If, on the other hand, they display a Verisign logo and they are not registered with Verisign, you can certainly report that to Verisign. And they tend to complain, very quickly and very loudly, to the hoster, resulting in the site's removal. But, unless I'm missing it, I don't see a Verisign logo.

Thanks for that Nyla. We have been debating this one in a Skype chat for a while, and have pretty much come to the same conclusions.

There is an issue regarding an explicit statement that they use SSL.

I followed a link from the site "play now" which takes me here: http://www.winalot.com/ssl-secure/il/uk-play.htm

On this page you are asked for personal details, credit card info and the like. The statement on the page reads the following:-

STEP 4: Enter Your Credit Card Details & Payment Information.
*Online entries are SSL-Encrypted to ensure your privacy and the security of your credit card details. You are guaranteed SSL-Encryption by the presence of a Locked/Closed-Padlock icon on your browser.

This statement is a complete and utter fabrication as the site itself does NOT CONTAIN ANY SSL SERVICE. Note, that there is no padlock on the page, the URL starts with http and NOT https.

It gets funnier too...

One of our number entered gobbledygook into the online form, and it was accepted without raising any errors. This is obviously incorrect and looks more like a phishing site than a legitimate company (In My Opinion).

Slarti, I wouldn't touch this website with a ten-foot barge pole, and I would certainly never consider entereing my Credit Card details into the site.

It may not be illegal, but it isn't very far off (In My Opinion).

[FW Admin]

The site is hosted in the Netherlands and its reverse IP shows 21 sites hosted on the same server, 5 of which are lottery-related and none of which have SSL certification (https does not work on any of these sites):

217.67.231.23 - IP hosts 21 Total Domains ...
INTERLOTTO.COM.
LOTTERYSHOP.COM.
LOTTOSHOP.COM.
WINALOT.COM.
WINLOTTO.COM.

I would agree that this could very well be a phishing operation, and all these being on the same server suggests the same people being behind all of them.

Bottom line, I would not venture to even consider doing any business with any of these "organizations".

[Phisher Price]

The Verisign Gold Seal is on lotteryshop.com
They are also saying that the "UK National Lottery" is managed and supervised by Camelot.

1. There is no "UK National Lottery", it's just the "National Lottery".

2. I emailed the National Lottery and they told me that lotteryshop.com is in no way affiliated with Camelot Group.

Can some check to see if their a member of some kind of Dutch gaming regulator?

[Nyla]

I'm not sure they would actually be covered by gambling/gaming laws. Technically, they aren't running a game of chance.

They're (I'm sure they would argue) selling you a service. They are selling you the service of walking up to a ticket counter and purchasing a ticket in a game of chance, and owning it on your behalf. The service just happens to come with a promise to pay winnings should there be any. It's a bit like offering to put up the money to buy you and your friend a ticket apiece, if he makes the drive to the store for the tickets, just on a larger scale. Or lottery pools where everyone at work chips in $10 and agrees to split the winnings equally.

Now, I'm sure they would probably have to be registered like any other business/company in the Netherlands, but... I'm not sure how you would even go about reporting that violation, or what it would result in if they aren't registered. I can barely manage checking the website where the companies are registered, personally.

[Slartibartfast]

Meyer @ 419 eater said

interlotto.com is LEGIT. It is ugly, but that doesn't make it illegal. It happens quite often that lads abuse the names of legit companies to give more credibility to their scams. Google interlotto.com and you will see that it is mentioned on many, many legit websites. Including such that warn about scams like here: http://www.fraudaid.com/scamspam/lot...ttery_scam.htm

Please do not send an abuse complaint about this.

[Phisher Price]

I'd just like to say that the page Meyer pointed to is about 2 years old, I spoke to Annie from Fraud Aid and she said it's not even supposed to be spidered by the search engines and It's only used by the webmaster for occasional bits and pieces.

The page is now removed.

[jrglez]

I made an order yesterday, very late last night and in the whole day I didn't receive any answer, they tell you that you receive 2 emails, one immediately after you have sent your order and the second when your transaction has been completed successfully.

This is the story...

After I put all my data in there and bought some tickets for the USA Powerball, I was not receiving the first email, then I contacted the admin, and I finally got an answer, that was very late last night.

Today in the whole day I didn't receive the second email regarding the success of my transaction, neither having any problem about it -which is hell weird-. I contacted their "Help Desk" by chat and after giving them my transaction number (got at the first email), I just got a message that the support operator closed my request, nothing like a normal service, with no answer at all.

I had another conversation on the morning, asking them a few things, and they also shut me down then, both times it was always a guy supposed to be called Bryan,

This was the conversation in the morning:
Bryan: Welcome to Live Help, how can we help you?
<removed>: im just curious about this place and have several questions
<removed>: is that ok?
<removed>: hello?
<removed>: anybody there?
Bryan: what is your inquiry?
<removed>: a few, first, where are your HQs, although I understand you have offices or representatives in many places, where is this company from?
Bryan: we are located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
<removed>: How am I guarantee that if win, just suppose, 100mill USD you will actually give me the money or the bill to collect it?
Bryan: we have been collecting and remitting prize money including the UK Lottery Jackpot of US$ 24.1 M last January 2002 since 1988
Bryan: if however you win you can always choose to travel and witness the claiming of prize in person. We will lend assistance and service but travel costs will be at your own expense
Bryan: winnings are paid in cash, check or bank transfer and can be deposited in any bank you nominate
<removed>: and the last, Is there any reliable source, government agency or well known website that makes a reference to you, certifies your business or so, I don't mean about Internet Security, but the business
Bryan: please be informed that OSA is independent of the government sponsored lotteries
The support operator has closed this support request.

*****************************

Also notice this disclaimer at this exact page

http://www.interlotto.com/information.html#DISCLAIMER

5. OSA guarantees its best efforts to enter your number selections into all Lottery Draws within your subscription period. However, in the event your numbers have not been entered in one of the Draws due to causes beyond its control (such as force majeure, computer system error, or negligence on the part of any individual Lottery Agency), OSA will not be held liable for any prize you should have won. OSA will enter your number selections in the full number of Draws to which you have subscribed.

*******************************

So, even if they had bought your ticket and you win, they could tell you they haven't for whatever reasons and you having no right at all to reclaim, maybe you could get your ticket money back

I'm not very concern because I have a special credit card with very low level of credit to risk at the Internet,

But by no means I can think this guys are reliable.

Thanks,

[Nyla]

There are a number of reasons why you might find it difficult to collect a Powerball prize even if the company were to legitimately buy you a ticket and you were to win. For any prize over $600, you must collect at the state lottery office. For any prize less, you must collect in the state where the ticket was purchased.

It's also extremely hinky that he's quoting the winnings for the UK lottery in US currency.

Not to mention, it's apparently banned, in some cases, for even British citizens to purchase UK lottery tickets while abroad in some countries.

http://www.expatfocus.com/index.php?...wtopic&t=19392

To be honest, slim as the odds are of actually winning, you would be much better off focusing on your own national lottery and staying away from foreign lotteries and lottery agents. There's usually a very good reason you can't easily purchase foreign lottery tickets. They generally mean you wouldn't be eligible to claim the money even if you won.

I too placed an order recently via the Interlotto site. It wes for the Euro Millions when it had a large jackpot, I did get my email back straight away, and the form was definatly secure, the certificate matched the processing site (internet secure), and this appears to be the secure services for many of the sites. I then received my followup email with confirmation. I was quite excited to find that some of the numbers I picked did indeed come up and I thought I would wait to see if they contacted me. 2 days later I received an email saying I had won a prize and that they had tried to call me (i put in a phone number that was incorrect as I didn't want to find myself on a telemarketing list). I contacted them via the Live Chat, and within the week I received a payment for E43.67. When I cross checked with the official Euro Millions site I found that this was the correct amount for the prize tier I won (give or take a few cents for currency changes on the day) and was pleasantly surprised to find that as they promise no commissions had been taken out and they didn't want any fee's or anything to pay out my money. Obviously you can go to the official sites and buy these tickets, but for some that make it hard for overseas players this seems like a pretty good option. Particularly seeing that it does indeed do what the site says it will do.

My own rule of thumb is that fraud sites come and go, and if they rip people off and do not pay out winnings then pretty soon people start screaming, and with the internet being a large public forum you would expect to hear these screams. I first came across Interlotto.com in 1999, so although they may be a service, or reseller they do seem to do what they say they do, and I can not find any posts online from anyone who has won a prize and not had it paid out. As a business owner myself it makes more sense to make sure you do do the right thing by your customers, because doing the wrong thing is instant suicide on the internet today!

Having had a good experience with them myself (ie: i played & won and was paid my winnings without any trouble or fee's), and seeing that they have been operating for so many years, and also seem to be active in warning people of other not so legit operators I would give them the thumbs up! If you can show me a post where someone has won and not been paid their money please post it here!

Live long & prosper!

Ronald Baher

[poirot]

The Minister for Consumer Affairs of Australia has issued this fraud warning regarding OSA
http://www.premier.sa.gov.au/news.php?id=509

Overseas Subscribers Agents (OSA)

OSA sends letters inviting consumers to purchase tickets, in overseas lotteries. OSA offers to arrange tickets for 6 different lotteries*. Some of the tickets seem much more pricey than tickets in South Australia lotteries. For example, the actual cost in South Australia Lotteries is $4.85, but consumers may be charged US$25 (AUS$33) to play an OSA lottery.
The OSA website also states that the Australian Superdraw is not open to residents of Australia.

In an effort to present themselves as a legitimate lottery organisation they have posted a “Scam Watch” section on their website (www.osalotteries.com) to warn consumers against falling for lottery scams. They focus on scams that state you’ve won but must send money in order for the winnings to be released.

(*Prize figures of $15,000 are regularly mentioned in their materials. OCBA is not aware of anybody receiving a prize. The purpose of this lottery is to encourage consumers to pay to enter and OSA to get their money)

There is another thread here on this subject: http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/...ead.php?t=2891