Call Me Back, Says $5M Lottery Jackpot Winner To Officials Phoning With The News - And Here's The Surprising Reason Why
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The winning ticket was sold at Cameron’s Newsagency owned by Pauline and David Hastings, pictured. Photo: Emma Biscoe
An Australian man told Oz Lotto officials to call him back in 10 minutes... while he got out of the shower.
The new multi-millionaire, who wants to stay anonymous, said he told the NSW Lotteries Official who called again with the good news: "You’ve just made my day, my week, my year, my life!"
He bought the golden ticket in Tuesday night’s Oz Lotto from Cameron’s Newsagency on Bong Bong Street, Bowral, and scooped the division one prize pool.
Cameron’s Newsagency on Bong Bong Street, Bowral, NSW
“I’m sitting on cloud nine right now. I’ll be popping a bottle of champagne to celebrate tonight. I can’t wait to tell my wife,” he said.
But as a cautionary note, we think he should have gotten the lottery phone number from the phone book or internet, and then asked for the official by name to confirm the news.
With the amount of fraud around these days, it's possible a phone scammer could have requested his credit card details to 'confirm' the ticket, or any other number of methods designed to part him from his money.
According to the Scam-Detector website, a scam caller will often try to get you excited and sell you on emotional statements like, "your kids are taken care of now" or "your retirement is well-deserved."
Then in order to receive the money, winners are told they have to pay the state or provincial tax, which could be as much as 5% of the winnings.
Happy to get a million dollars, many victims send in the 5% to a post office box after receiving a 'confirmation' e-mail with the details on how the money should be transferred.
As for the Oz Lotto man, the winner said he couldn’t think what to do with his windfall.
But he said he would share it with his family, cut work hours back and might take a dream holiday with his wife.
And Cameron’s Newsagency owners Pauline and David Hastings said it was exciting to have a local winner.
The Hastings have owned the newsagency for seven years and it is the biggest prize pool that has been won in their time.
The winner played a system eight entry and also won multiple prizes in division three bringing the total prize to $5,017,543.75.
The winning numbers in Oz Lotto draw 1094 on February 3, 2015 were 10, 5, 7, 2, 12, 36 and 11. The supplementary numbers were 4 and 14.
