WHEN he received a letter at his Dublin home telling him he had won €1.3m in a Spanish lottery, Jose Edades thought his money worries were over.

Instead, the Filipino-born forklift driver ended up losing his life savings and became another unwitting victim of a financial scam that is targeting Ireland’s immigrant community.

When Edades received the letter last month he phoned Tom Matine Cruse, the contact name in the letter, who convinced him his good fortune was genuine. Cruse told Edades he and his wife had won the money as part of an international promotion designed to boost awareness of the Primitiva lottery in Spain.

Edades agreed to fax copies of the couple’s passports, marriage certificate and visas to prove their identity, thus giving the scam artists all the material required for identity theft.

Edades was then told he had to pay administrative charges before he could receive the prize. Upon receipt of a faxed “certificate of deposit”, he went to the GPO in O’Connell Street and wired €1,106 to a Spanish bank.

“It was like I was hypnotised,” said Edades. “This guy convinced me I had won the money and all I needed to do was pay the fee and the transfer of the prize would be made. I thought €1,000 is so small compared to €1.3m.”

Then he received a fax containing the signature of a fictitious Spanish minister for justice. It said the €1.3m transfer had been completed but that release of the funds was on hold until Edades paid the Spanish government €5,306 in non-residential tax.

He transferred another €1,500, the maximum he could take out on his credit card. “I always had my mind on the winning prize and ignored all my doubts,” he said.

Edades, who has lived in Ireland for five years, is a forklift driver in a warehouse during the week while working as a gardener at weekends. He believed the timing of the “win” was perfect.

His wife is flying into Ireland from the Philippines next week with his two young daughters, who will be starting school here in the autumn. Now he has cancelled plans to travel back with his wife to visit his elderly mother.

“I can’t afford to fly now as I have lost the money in the scam. I thought of myself as a genius, but this was so stupid. When my wife arrives I will explain to her what I did.”

Gardai are investigating the case but do not hold out much hope of reclaiming Edades’s money.

Last year Spanish police, in co-operation with the FBI, arrested 316 people involved in running a Spanish lottery scam. Most of the group, who came from Nigeria, were involved in a scam that involved sending e-mails to unsuspecting individuals asking for their assistance in securing the unclaimed inheritance of a fictional African dignitary.

Spanish police said the group earned €100m in one year from 20,000 people who responded to more than 6m letters sent around the world.

“You may think it’s amazing that people get caught out by these scams, but often it is vulnerable people who lose their money,” said Mary Denise O’Reilly of the European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Dublin.

“Anecdotally we have heard of immigrant communities being targeted. We’ve had Filipino nurses who contacted us in tears after they were taken in by a lottery scam. There was also another woman from Asia who was taken in by this kind of scam. Our message is simple. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is probably a scam.”

Fidel Taguinod, founder of the League of Filipino Nurses in Ireland, believes the scam artists target immigrants by looking for unusual names.

“I received a letter saying I’d won the Spanish lottery and I got very excited,” he said. “But when I checked online I saw stories of the scam and I knew it was a lie.”

Reginald Inya, president of the Nigerian Association Ireland, said the scams give people the wrong impression of Nigerians. “These people are trying to squeeze money out of others and exploit a difficulty. Nigerians in Ireland have received these letters and e-mails too, and I always advise them not to negotiate with them. Nigerians are not all criminals and these people are harming our reputation.”

The ECC, which assists consumers in cross-border disputes, said 8% of all complaints to its office were about scams.

“This has been going on for years, but it is becoming increasingly common that people receive letters claiming to come from lotteries in the Netherlands and Spain,” said O’Reilly.

“We know there are companies selling-on mailing lists for big money. People need to be aware where they give their details and not agree to their information being sold to third parties.”

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb