It is sold as a scratch and win dream — two professional-looking scratchie cards neatly packaged alongside a glossy travel brochure and sent via registered mail with a return address to Kuala Lumpur.

When the recipient scratches a ticket, they "win" a prize of $US240,000 ($369,000).

But before any prize can be claimed, recipients are asked to provide the scammers with their personal identification details and to transfer money to claim their winnings.

Consumer Protection WA said there had been an escalation in scratchie scams, with 110 reports made to the consumer watchdog over the past year.

Five West Australians fell victim to scratchie fraudsters totalling $30,550 in losses.

ABC presenter Roslyn Butcher was suspicious when she opened the mail. (ABC Kimberley: Andrew Seabourne)

ABC Kimberley-Pilbara Saturday Breakfast presenter Roslyn Butcher received the pictured scratchies last month.

"I was quite excited because normally whatever online shopping I do I tend to get it sent to a parcel locker, but this was registered post," she said.

The Kimberley-based presenter was suspicious and checked online to see if it was a scam.

"I know the saying: 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'," Ms Butcher said.

"I was able to think this through and realise it probably was a scam. Sure enough, it really was too good to be true."

Change of tactics

Consumer Protection Kimberley senior officer Ange Inns said scammers changed their fraudulent trading name once found out.

"It's a lottery in itself whether you receive them. Don't fall for the glossy paperwork and the big win," she said.

"To go to this trouble and effort, you'd think that they are quite certain some people are going to fall for these scams."

Ange Inns says it is important that residents report the scams to ScamNet. (ABC Kimberley: Dunja Karagic)

She said scammers attempted to use the provided details for identity theft.

"It's definitely one of the tricks of their trade to get you sucked into sending in your personal details, copies of your passport or your bank account details," Ms Inns said.

"This could be used in a lot of ways to steal your identity, take out loans, and all these other things."

Millions lost to scammers

Australian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission statistics show Australians have lost more than $5.8 million in "unexpected winnings" scams, which include scratchie scams, since 2020.

Fraudulent scams arriving in the mail have accounted for $1.6 million in losses, with residents in Queensland, New South Wales and WA reporting the highest number of scams.

The ACCC has recorded more than 1,000 reported unexpected winnings scams between 2020 and April 2025. (Supplied: ACCC)

While WA authorities said the scams were difficult to shut down, people should be suspicious of any letters, emails or telephone calls suggesting they had won an unexpected prize.

"You should never have to pay to win money, and be careful of sharing your ID documents," Ms Inns said.

"We can attempt to take web pages down, but I think the scammers will always be around."

Written by Esse Deves, ABC News.

 

[Zemo]

Come in, ya galahs ...

 

[Kayer02]

Scumbags.. !! Remember guys you never win something for nothing.. You can't trust anyone. There are that many scams and scammers out there these days.

 

[novezar]

If you can't get anything from a government controlled official lottery outlet, don't get involved.

"White" coloured crime is becoming smarter by the day with their criminal intent ideas.

 

[novezar]

Re my above.

Just wanted to add, that, I reckon that everyone who receives these "Cards" is a "Winner". Then everyone who answers with their details, become the losers.

 

[Veggiepatch]

"You don't need a long neck to be a goose".

No sympathy at all.

 

[Zemo]

And Queersland has the largest number of all.
Wonder what that says?

 

[7777]

I have received several emails, letting me know that in a completion that I had entered a long time ago, I have now become a winner of a six figure sum of money. On another occassion I was notified by email, that I was a beneficiary of a large estate that was left to me, by some name I have never heard of. In both cases, I was asked to provide my address, date of birth and my bank details, so that they can immediately make a transfer of the winnings and estate into my name and bank account. To be honest, it was exciting reading these elaborate emails, but they seemed to be too good to be true, so I deleted both of them, without any hesitation. Be wise, be smart, never give your bank details to these blood sucking scammers, who so cunningly, create tempting emails that offer free money in exchange for your bank details.

 

[Zemo]

I have received several emails, letting me know that I entered some completion long time ago, I have now become a winner of a six figure sum of money. On another occassion I was notified by email, that I was a beneficiary of a large estate that was left to me, by some name I have never heard of. In both cases, I was asked to provide my address, date of birth and my bank details, so that they can immediately make a transfer of the winnings and estate into my name and bank account. To be honest, it was exciting reading these elaborate emails, but they seemed to be too good to be true, so I deleted both of them, without any hesitation. Be wise, be smart, never give your bank details to these blood sucking scammers, who so cunningly, create tempting emails that offer free money in exchange for your bank details.

We were scammed by somebody impersonating an employee of Optus a couple of years ago.
We received an out-of-the-blue phone call one day. The caller identified himself straight away, with a normal Australian accent, as (let's call him) Jack Smith from Optus.
His first words were that he worked in the Brisbane HQ of Optus, giving us the correct address (as we learned later), his employee number was such and such and he was detailed to help us overcome any scamming attempts on our accounts and bank balances to do with Optus. "Are you happy with that?" he asked.
He said Optus security had been breached by scammers and that our account (including our interrnet) was compromised. He then gave us our Optus details, including both of our full names and address as he continued the patter, also our Optus account numbers "to make sure that this was a legitimate call and we had no worries about it being OK" -- all without asking us to do so.
How they got those details, we had no idea, but it all semed so straightforward.
His easy way of talking lulled us into accepting that everything was alright. All it took was a few short minutes.
Then he said that Optus had a way of ensuring that our account with them could be made much more secure in future in case anybody had breached our Optus details. "Have a good day," he said. "Everything will be OK. I'll now pass you over to a member of our technical department who can help you."
Smooth as a baby's bum ...
Next, the new voice (Indian this time, again giving us the info that he was also based in Brisbane) said that Optus had "an absolutely secure way of making sure that we and Optus were on the same page to get over this attempt to overcome any scamming". There was no background noise to make us wonder whether he was alone in his office as part of a team of scammers working hard to separate us from our money. He then told us the program name, called AnyDesk, making sure we got the spelling right when it was typed in, and said the program would start working in the next couple of days and not to worry in case it didn't show up immediately.
AnyDesk IS a legit program and the name is used by scammers to gain access to your computer ... of course, we didn't know that at the time. Also, the domain name he told us to type into the "To" field was just a tiny bit different from the original one. We found out that little catch a bit later.
$30,000-odd and a couple of days later, we found out we'd made a teensy-weensy mistake in trusting them. The money drained out of our account had gone straight overseas in a computer click and our bank at the time (it starts with a W and ends with a k) insisted that we had no comeback because we had willingly divulged our details to the scammers. Another bank, this time it starts with a B and ends with an o, apparently assisted in the process of making certain that the money trail was as trouble-free as possible.
After complaining to the Australian authority which is supposed to be our watchdog in scam prevention and letting them know what happened (nothing came of that) and several bits of correspondence with our original bank, who fobbed us off each time, the bank grudgingly let us have $9000 or so which they said they'd stopped from disappearing overseas "because we'd been good customers since the late 60s last year". No apologies, but.
How to learn a lesson the hard way.