# European Lottery Guild (after joining free lotto thru Facebook) - scam or not?



## ACA (22 Jan 2008)

Mr ACA received post this morning from the European Lottery Guild, (after joining free lotto thru Facebook), looking for €15 to enter the English Lottery for 5 weeks with 84 lines. I've had a mooch on their website [broken link removed] but am still unsure if this is genuine.

Anyone had any experience with this company?

Mods: pls feel free to move to more appropriate forum, if I've stuffed up!


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## ClubMan (22 Jan 2008)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*

A quick  suggests that it's probably a scam.


> Mr ACA received post this morning from the European Lottery Guild, (after joining free lotto thru Facebook)


Is he generally gullible?


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## ACA (22 Jan 2008)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*

unfortunately......YES is the answer to your question! He once paid on-line for Ares file sharing - even tho u can download for free!


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## Stifster (22 Jan 2008)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*



ACA said:


> unfortunately......YES is the answer to your question! He once paid on-line for Limewire - even tho u can download for free!


 
Don't you get it pop-up free if you pay (or was that Kazaa)?

Apparently.


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## ClubMan (22 Jan 2008)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*



ACA said:


> unfortunately......YES is the answer to your question! He once paid on-line for Limewire - even tho u can download for free!


Maybe you should install a parental/spousal web filter utility!


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## Glee (25 Jun 2009)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*

Hi, everyone.

This thread’s been inactive for some time, but I wanted to reply to it anyway because I want to answer the statement that European Lottery Guild (ELG) is “probably a scam.” 

I’m posting for the European Lottery Guild online community support team, and I’m glad to have a chance to clarify things here. The answer is no – ELG is not a scam.

But I understand the confusion. Unfortunately, scam operators have used the European Lottery Guild name in an attempt to make their schemes seem legitimate. And we’re not the only company with that problem: it’s happened to many organizations and even some charities.

Our customers’ security is important to us. We don’t want to be confused with any of the scam operators out there who copy our name and try to pass themselves off as us. 

We aim to do as much as we can to help our customers recognize scams so they don’t fall prey to them. We stay informed about lottery fraud and have mailed our customers information that can help them spot a scam. We also have a detailed article on how to spot a scam posted on the ELG website on the Consumer Protection page.

Now, here’s a quick summary of what European Lottery Guild is and does.

ELG is a lottery-entry service – not a lottery operator. We make it possible for people all over the world to play the great European lotteries, and we’ve been in operation since 1990 – a full 19 years!

All the lotteries available through ELG are officially licensed and approved by the governments of the sponsoring countries. 

Usually, to play a lottery, you have to be a resident of the country sponsoring the lottery. That makes it almost impossible for anyone outside that country to play. 

But some of these games feature enormous prize pools and excellent winning chances, so players worldwide want access to them – and that’s where ELG comes in. ELG can purchase tickets on players’ behalf through its network of licensed lottery agents across Europe, opening up play to non-residents.

Our entry fees do include costs such as administration, ticket processing and postage in addition to the price of the ticket itself – but when someone plays with us, that entry fee is the only fee we ever charge. _We never charge our players to collect winnings_ and we award winnings without deductions. Customers will receive the full value of any prize they win.

Finally, we obtain our customers’ contact information only through means that are standard and widely accepted in the direct marketing industry. Often, it’s our customers themselves who have given us this information. And like many companies, we use direct mail and telemarketing to promote our services. We abide by well-established and strict codes of practice within the direct marketing industry, which extend to customer privacy and database management.

If you are being contacted by ELG and you don’t wish to be, please let us know. We respect your privacy.

For more information, you can contact our customer service department by email at info@europeanlotteryguild.com, or by the phone numbers you’ll find on the “Contact Us” page of our website at www.europeanlotteryguild.com. 

Elizabeth
Online Community Support Team
European Lottery Guild


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## Tinker Bell (25 Jun 2009)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*

After a quick read it looks genuine enough. I would be happy enough to go with them if feeling the urge to play.


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## Near (18 Nov 2009)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*



> European Lottery Guild is the grandfather of the offshore lottery scams. Based in Amsterdam but with phone call agents in Canada, it pioneered the art of attracting money into the "chance" to buy a ticket.
> 
> Most lottery scam watchers assumed it had disappeared or changed its name. But it is back again.
> 
> ...


 

The Guardian, Saturday 15 February 2003.


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## ajapale (12 Jan 2010)

*Re: European Lottery Guild - scam or not?*

Question posed again recently.


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## pfenn1 (6 Jul 2011)

No-but is a very hard sell / bullying type of operation. 

Will not give a cost of playing on their web site -all participation in lotto is controlled by phone contact. 

Very persuasive patter used by their Agents with lines like:

*''I'll expect a gift from you when we speak again-implying Mr.X, the sucker player , *
*will be so grateful to the agent for having made such good earnings for him ;*
*Mr X- You have been selected as an Executive Member; Would you like to visit Canada and go home with a very nice sum of money; *
*we don’t want to talk about earning €4/5000-that would not make any difference to your life or retirement; *
*I'm working very hard for you Mr. X, you must trust me; *
*just trust me and go a little bit further and cover all bases (i.e. more money required); *
*odds will be 1 in 2.4 *
*( i.e. if Mr X is lucky enough to get just 1 number in a 6/49 game-not explained by them that having one number in any 6/49 lottery usually results in winning a pittance of a prize which would not pay the postage on a ‘Thank You’ card to the ELG agent never mind a gift).''* 

I can't believe I allowed my self to be taken in by them and been 'done' for so much money-I’m too disgusted with myself to mention how much money I parted with.' BE WARNED!!


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## chewy (20 Jul 2011)

*Caught Up In Same Situation!*

Hi Everyone with Same Situation

pfenn1, 

After reading your situation, myself was caught in that particular situation after all this scam when you are in a dire frustration and depressed while at work.

They are really so aggressive till you have to really thought 'oh what a hack just go for it' in my mind when I was so fragile and frustrated at that time.

Now, I'm so afraid that all the personal information will kept going on to other unauthorised people out they to target us again.

I hope ELG will do something to put a stop all this with stringent laws or regulation so that will not tarnish your organisation.

Please help all of us who have being targetted and put a fullstop.





pfenn1 said:


> No-but is a very hard sell / bullying type of operation.
> 
> Will not give a cost of playing on their web site -all participation in lotto is controlled by phone contact.
> 
> ...


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## ElisabethELG (12 Aug 2011)

*Concerned about scams?*

Hi everyone, 

  As this thread has become active again, I just wanted to reiterate what a colleague of mine posted a few years ago. For the record, European Lottery Guild is not a scam. There _are _scam operators out there who copy our images and name in order to make their schemes seem legitimate; it’s unfortunate, and a constant battle for us.  Rest assured that if you have given us your details, they are treated with the utmost confidentiality according to the Data Protection Act. 

  If you are concerned about scams, please do get in touch with us. This forum won't allow me to post URLs, but there’s our live chat on our website (European Lottery Guild). You can also chat with me, Elisabeth Moore, on Facebook (elg.elisabethmoore) or follow us on Twitter (EuropeanLottery). Please do get in touch directly if you have any questions! 

  Best,
  Elisabeth Moore
  Customer Relations Manager 
  European Lottery Guild


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