Received few days ago El Gordo Sweepstake Lottery S.A. (same address as a previous complaint by member in 06, but different tel. No) accompanied by Payment Processing form for Venture Security & Finance (again, H/O address: c/Cordoba No. 21, Planta 2A Madrid Spain (with branch office in Hamburg Germany) but different tel: 0034 651 943 228/Fax 0034 911 013 162 to contact agent Don Fernando Garcia, Foreign Services Mgr of this firm. On trying to call, one gets a lot of redirection noises (something official telecom offices will do if there is a diversion say from an old address to a new office, which may be quite legit) but could't get through anyway.
I've for many years bought lots of Spanish Lottery tickets through my established agents outside Spain such as ELG in series and blocks, so have been scanning reports etc. On scams as well as taking into account legitimate difficulties the fact that political developments might complicate matters for legitimate Spanish agents in processing legit wins, e.G. Current Spanish tax regime on lottery wins which is the subject of ongoing consideration at the ECJ meaning that legit agents in Spain who bid for the processing of wins may have to get winners to make pre-payments since very few agencies there would have the financial or organisational means to pay tax for winners, nor could they deduct these from the winnings since these cheques are normally deposited at Banco Central, who in turn would look to the winners to pay via their internal revenue depts. However, scammers have been taking advantage of this long before the tax regime (i.E. On lottery wins) came into force, so there's an added area of consideration that a few legit agents there may be functioning as though they are scammers in expecting pre-payment plus 10% commission after receipt. Their promotional programmes results would probably not be notified to say, my normal agencies like ELG as logal agents do bid to process these.
I'm just trying to establish the authenticity of this Venture Security & Finance (i.E. Is it a legit trading company for other commercial purposes whose address has been used by lottery scammers with their own diverted phones and faxes; or is this security firm itself in on the scam; also El Gordo Spanish Sweepstake Lottery S.A. - so far can't find any legit board members from lottery companies regulated by ONLAE who knows about them.
I'm interested in seeing more reports from those who've received communications from them, in particular what contact numbers are attached to the addresses, also whether the address given is the legit one for these security firms. At this stage, this report is really a Ripoff query - Any further suggestions?
Lisa
London
United Kingdom
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