Steve Lavergne didn’t care that he had been thrown off a city bus for screaming like a madman Friday afternoon — he’d just received the phone call he assumed would change his life forever.
The caller on the other end of the line claimed to be from the Western Canadian Lottery Corp. and said a Lotto 6-49 ticket Lavergne dropped in a Calgary mall weeks earlier was the sixth winner from a $48-million jackpot.
Blinded by 10-million dollar signs, Lavergne first dialed his boss and quit his new job. Then, he called his fiancée to tell her she’d never work another day in her life.
It wasn’t until he made it home that he realized it was all a lie.
“I’m so embarrassed — it was all a horrible prank,” the 34-year-old new Edmonton resident said, adding he’s sure he was targeted.
“They kept asking me if I was willing to reward the people that found the ticket.”
While email scams bearing the Lotto 6-49 name are popular, a WCLC spokeswoman said she’s never seen a scam this malicious.
“It’s extremely cruel and very surprising it came through his cellphone,” said Andrea Marantz. “With all this interconnectedness, we have to be so vigilant. The best advice is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Marantz said the illusion of legitimacy in lottery scams is evolving so quickly, it’s plausible for even the cautious to be duped, and Lavergne may not be the only victim.
She added if the owner of a lost lottery ticket were contacted by WCLC, winnings wouldn’t be discussed over the phone.
“We would never call anyone and say they’d won $7 million — I can’t see us ever doing that.”
Officials from Phonebusters, Canada’s fraud watchdog agency, said lottery scams can be especially devastating for those in financial trouble.
“I feel like I’m worthless, because people messed with my head and it got the best of me,” Lavergne said. “I’ve been crying for three days.”
