Complaint Review: La Primitiva Int'l Loteria

I received a letter from La Primitiva Int'l Loteria stating I won $1,815,950.00 out of a lottery of $25,000,000.00

Although I tried to be cautious, I regret to say I was taken in. They stated in the snail mail that if I had any questions I could contact their representative by the name of Andrea Mariano of Andrea Mariano and Associates, a lawyer in a very prestigious and of high integrity at amariano@gmail.com.

I had contacted them to see if indeed they were legitimate or a scam, which of course they verified as being legitimate, and of the highest integrity & honesty. After several emails between us, I took a chance to trust 'em and sent $900.00 to cover processing and time & effort. I then received an email stating that for me to collect the winnings, I had to send an additional $4,000.00 to cover part of a government demand of .05% of the winnings for taxes. When I explained that the $900.00 was all I had in the world (I'm currently unemployed) and could not send the $4000.00, not to mention the $9000.00 the government demanded, I got an email encouraging me to act quickly and send $2000.00 and a reputable bank would cover the rest (I could cover what I owed when I received my winnings, just like the I could do with the government).

Researching again to be absolutely sure I was doing the right thing, I chanced upon this web site. Much to my chagrin, I read a couple of reports re: La Primitiva Int'l Loteria, and found several passages were exactly the same as in the letter I received.  

Needless to say I was severely bummed, being unemployed and all, not to mention having my trust misplaced. I learned an expensive & hard lesson.

Let this be a warning to others, always trash letters or emails offering unbelievable amount of cash, especially from places you're not familiar with, no matter how "official" it seems. The old adage still holds true, "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!"