Global lottery scam busted in the Netherlands

In an investigation into a global, multi-million euro lottery mail scam with hundreds of thousands of victims, on Thursday Dutch prosecutors said they had raided 10 locations.

As a result of the raids, authorities found hundreds of thousands of fraudulent letters, half a million euros in cash, sports cars, art works and watches.

Several bank accounts were frozen and the contents of 300 mailboxes were seized.

The national prosecutors' office said in a statement that a joint US-Dutch investigation led to raids on at six companies based in the Netherlands.

Suspects sent millions of personalised letters seeking payments to the USA, Britain, Switzerland, Italy, France and Japan among others.

Recipients were told they had won the lottery but in order to receive their prize they had to first send €20-45 to a postbox in the Netherlands.

Scambusters suggests lottery scams from the UK and Netherlands are very popular but there are ways to avoid being ripped off.

They advise to remember that you can't win a lottery you haven't entered, no legitimate lottery will ask you to pay any fees before you are allowed to collect your prize, and you should avoid filling out forms either online or on paper as you may end up on a list of targets for scammers.

If you want to find out more about the lottery scams that often crop up then take a look at the Scambusters advice page.