Costa del Sol
Nigerian lottery scam sent 25,000 letters every day
By h.b.
May 30, 2008 - 7:40 AM

More details on the Nigerian network which was broken up by National Police in Málaga on Wednesday.

The police say that the group of 53 people arrested in the so-called ‘Operacion Loto’ were part of an organisation which sent out an average 25,000 letters from Málaga every day, to addresses round the world, claiming the recipients had won the Spanish lottery. Victims were invited to send an administrative fee to release their ‘winnings’.

Police estimate that two out of every 1,000 people to receive such a letter acted on it and sent the money and the Málaga group are known to have made 27 million € in the scam, but police think that the real amount they have made could have reached 250 million.

Police have searched 34 phone call shops and 19 homes as part of the operation and have impounded as many as 30 lap-top computers and 20 other computers. They also recovered more than 100,000 of the letters ready to be sent, 150 mobile phones and an amount of cash in counterfeit notes.