Ooredoo warns customers of ق€˜lottery winق€™ scam

Ooredoo has encouraged customers to report “any and all communications” they feel may be suspicious, in light of a raft of recent fraud attempts involving so-called lottery wins. 

Ooredoo reported having seen many examples recently of fraudsters contacting its customers to let them know they have won substantial sums of money via a lottery, for example, and all they need to do to claim their money is transfer a ‘processing fee’ via prepaid credit, money transfers, or other means. 

Some of the recent fraud attempts have included fraudsters using the Ooredoo logo, fake websites and even images of Ooredoo senior management team and so-called ‘previous winners’ to try to convince customers the communication and lottery win is legitimate. 

Ooredoo stressed that there is no lottery win and customers will not receive any prizes. Instead, they are left out of pocket having transferred funds believing they are paying the ‘processing fee’ to receive their winnings. 

Manar Khalifa al-Muraikhi, director, PR and Corporate Communications at Ooredoo, said: “We won’t ever ask customers to send us money in order to win a prize. All our competitions are publicised in press releases to the media and via our own verified social media accounts; we’ll clearly mention how winners will be announced; and there will never be any payment required to claim prizes. 

“We know fraudsters will stop at nothing in their attempts to scam our customers, but we are entirely committed to ensuring we keep our customers, their personal data, and their finances as safe as possible. We’re constantly working to stay abreast of the latest fraud trends, and encourage all our customers to be vigilant and report any suspicious communication or activity to us as soon as possible.” 

To report any suspicious communication, however it was received, customers can call 111, send email to [email protected] or [email protected], or visit any Ooredoo shop.