Warning over scam in lotto winner’s name

A WARNING has been issued over lotto scams after a Glebe native who scooped the Euromillions jackpot in 2019 was erroneously cited in a new multi-million pound give-away.

Frances Connolly and her partner Patrick pocketed almost £115million in January that year and since then, have generously given large sums of money away to family, friends and charities.

In the interim, they have also established two charitable foundations – the Kathleen Graham Trust in Northern Ireland, named after Frances’s mother, and the PFC Trust in County Durham in England, where they now live.

However a source close to the Connolly’s this week confirmed to the Chronicle that a new email give-away doing the rounds is a complete scam.

The email, purportedly written by Frances and Patrick, claims to be giving away over £1million to 15 lucky recipients world-wide and asks for personal details so people can claim their winnings.

“As for Frances and Paddy, we know they would only give away money via their own charities or face-to-face to friends and family,” the source close to the Connollys explained.

On the back of this new attempted swindle, the National Lottery too has offered a warning.

“We are aware that there are individuals and organisations that attempt to obtain payment or personal details from people under a variety of pretexts,” a spokesperson said.

“The National Lottery, winners of The National Lottery and other lotteries are sometimes falsely used as part of these scams.

“We would urge people to remember that, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. We would also like to remind people the only place you can legitimately purchase National Lottery tickets or scratchcards is from an official National Lottery retailer.

“The National Lottery provides security advice in respect of lottery ‘scams’: at www.national-lottery.co.uk/security. As always, if any individual believes they are a victim of crime, they should contact their local police.”