Imagine thinking you had won a small fortune on a scratchie, only to find you were almost the victim of a devious scam.
Coralee Bradley was one of thousands of Australians who received fake winning tickets in the mail, sent from travel companies with websites registered in Malaysia.
‘I scratched and I went “One hundred thousand dollars, you beauty”!’ she said, before realising something wasn’t right.
Coralee Bradley (pictured) was one of thousands of Australians who received fake winning tickets in the mail, sent from travel companies with websites registered in Malaysia
Imagine thinking you had won a small fortune on a scratchie, only to find you were almost the victim of a devious scam (pictured are fake winning tickets)
The scratchie scam is not new, but the latest tickets sent out in the mail came from four suspect travel companies, A Current Affair reported.
According to the The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, vulnerable Australians have lost at least $284,112 to scratchie scams this year alone.
Dr Michael Schaper, Deputy Chair of the ACCC, confirmed large sums have been lost, and that multiple outfits may be responsible.
‘Anyone who tells you you’ve won something but is going to charge you in advance before they give you money is clearly something to be suspicious of,’ he said.
According to the The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, vulnerable Australians have lost at least $284,112 to scratchie scams this year alone (pictured are fake winning tickets)
Ms Bradley admits to having started spending her US$190,000 prize in her head after scratching off two tickets she found in her mailbox.
‘I thought this would be great, it would get me back on my feet … then common sense said to me “something’s not right here”,’ she said.
Others were not so lucky, and the ACCC has received 991 scratchie scam reports in 2017, with 2.1 per cent of those falling victim to the scam.
The companies identified as being possibly involved in the scam are Pillow Talk Tourism, Sweet Summer Tour, White Winter Vacation, and Two Princess Tour.
The companies identified as being possibly involved in the scam are Pillow Talk Tourism (pictured, right) and White Winter Vacation (pictured, left)
All have websites registered in Malaysia in March and June this year.
Daily Mail Australia contacted the four companies for comment.
Pillow Talk Tourism confirmed they send scratchie tickets to Australia, but refused to comment further. They denied having links to the other three companies.
The news comes as an Instagram scammer was busted posing as a Hervey Bay lottery winner.
That scam may have been an attempt to steal the identities of people who followed the fake account.
Companies identified as being possibly involved in the scam are Sweet Summer Tour (pictured, right) and Two Princess Tour (pictured, left)