Last year in the US, over 70 billion dollars was spent on lottery tickets. An estimated 97 million people pouring their hard earned money into their hopes and dreams. Those hopes and dreams are what scams like Global International Lottery and Sweepstakes prey upon.
But are they really a scam? The question is always "what if", right? I know... I've been there too.
Disclaimer:
Please note, I am not affiliated with Global Insight Lottery and Sweepstakes in any way. This review has been researched with information and testimonials that are available online in the public domain. Any conclusions drawn by myself are opinions.
What Is Global International?
As their name indicates, Global International is a lottery and sweepstakes company. Details are difficult to come by, which is reason enough to suspect they are a scam.
Some sources say they are located in Kingston, Jamaica… but I’m pretty sure they may be confusing Global International Lottery with Global Insight International, which is a company that has provided cultural travel exchanges and internships for 50 years.
The Global International we’re talking about is the Lottery and Sweepstakes one, which is registered in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Is Global International a Scam?
With complaints going back nearly a decade, Global International is about as shady as they come. I don’t typically accuse businesses of being a flat-out scam… but I see no evidence to suggest they are not.
Let’s state the obvious first. What are the chances of winning a lottery that you didn’t even buy a ticket for?
Statistically speaking, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning a couple hundred times, or even get killed by an asteroid, than you are to win the lottery (at least the big one). And that’s when you DO buy a ticket.
If you didn’t even play, and yet someone is contacting you about the jackpot you won… well, you’re probably thinking it’s a scam. Which is why you’re reading this review.
But it’s not fair to make assumptions, so I looked a little deeper into Global International so see what was going on here.
Global International Complaints
There are countless complaints about Global International, as well as legal inquiries and documentation.
Scambook currently has 86 complaints registered, with nearly 5 million in unresolved damages.
But if you keep digging you’ll find many more complaints on various forums, blogs, etc.
And each one has a similar story…
The victims and targets were contacted by email, snail mail, or by phone and told they had won a cash prize and luxury car... usually a Mercedes. The cash prize ranges anywhere between 500K and several million.
And this is where the scam comes in...
To collect their big windfall, they must pay a fee, usually within a set deadline of 10 days.
The fee can be anywhere from a $20 to $30 processing fee, up to thousands of dollars. These are charges for things such as,
- Transfer fees
- Duty
- Storage Costs
- Taxes
- Administrative Expenses
Those who have made payments to Global International, of course… never see the prize, or their money again.
Some have received checks, but when they tried to cash them they were told the checks were either fake, or worse, stolen.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be caught trying to case a stolen check.
But these claims are circumstantial, and although they're quite convincing, what about some hard evidence?
Las Vegas, Nevada - 2008
Global Lottery and Sweepstakes was originally registered in 2008 at 303 Carson Ave Las Vegas, NV 89118.
2008 was also the year of the Great Recession. I don’t know if they started this prize-scam to take advantage of vulnerable people, or if 2008 is just a coincidence.
What I was really looking for, was their physical location. Most scams don’t have actual offices (at least not publicly), so I wanted to know more about 303 Carson Ave in Las Vegas.
It turns out, Global Lottery and Sweepstakes isn’t the only tenant here. You can also find Winners International Payout Services.
That’s not entirely unusual. Quite often similar businesses occupy the same building. If we continue with that logic, we can accept that another company, Mega Millions, is also a tenant.
All three of these businesses have a BIG problem however. The are all sharing an address that does NOT exist.
That should be enough to tell you that this is a scam, but if we continue to dig deeper we find more. According to a Federal Trade Commission action against Global... Mega Millions and Winner International Payout are NOT THE ONLY names they are doing business as... or with...
The FTC action claims the defendants (of this particular action) against Global include…
- Mail Tree Inc.
- Michael McKay Co.
- Spin Mail Inc.
- MCP Marketing Activities LLC, also doing business as Magellan Mail and Magellan Marketing
- Trans National Concepts Inc.
- Romeria Global LLC, also d/b/a Lowenstein Varick and Nagel
- Supreme Media LLC
- Vernier Holdings Inc.
- Awards Research Consultant LLC
- Mailpro Americas Corp.
- Masterpiece Marketing LLC, also d/b/a Affiliated Opportunities Group (AOG),
- Corporate Accounting Authority (CAA),
- Dispatch Notification Services (DNS),
- Information Reporting Group (IRG),
- National Directory Center (NDC), and
- Priority Information Exchange (PIE)
I think it’s fair to say something isn’t quite right here. Other names they’ve been found to use are Gold Rush Sweepstakes and Global Winner International.
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More Evidence
Some evidence, like the fake address, is plain to see...
Other times, we just need to look at indicators...
First, you can’t find an actual Global International website. What kind of million-dollar company in 2018 doesn’t have website?
At the very least they should have a social media presence.
Here’s their Facebook page...
That's one lonely Facebook Page. You'd think that a company known for giving away millions in cash and luxury cars would have quite the popular social media following...
Nope.
Finally, and this is just something I found more amusing than actual evidence of a scam. The names they are using when contacting people would comical, if their lies weren't so cruel.
One person said they were speaking with Bobby Axe at Global International. For viewers of the popular TV Show Billions, you’ll know that the main character’s name is Bobby Axelrod, and he is the owner of Axe Capital.
Later I was reading a complaint by another person who said they were dealing with Mr. Michael Winters. It may just be a coincidence, but the same actor who plays Bobby Axelrod on Billions (Damien Lewis) also played the part of Major Winters in the mini-series Band of Brothers.
Some other names that sounded fake to me were James Bronson, John Washington, and Harry King. I’m sure there are more if you keep looking. On their own, there’s nothing really strange here (although James Bronson sounds like a character from a Tom Clancy novel)… but a bunch of people with last names like Winters, Axe, Washington, and King…?
I’m not buying it.
Final Thoughts
Rarely does a day go by that I don’t get a phone call from some kind of scam. Here in Canada it’s been the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) scam.
And then you have the countless online scams.
So what can we do in a world of extreme dishonesty and thievery (is that even a word) 😀
A few tips to keep in mind…
- Never pay for a prize. If you've won it... you’ve won it…
- Don’t trust any business that uses email addresses from AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.
- Check if they have an online community (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) Most companies do, and you can read what people are saying.
- Do they have a website? Is there real contact information on it?
- Confirm a physical address.
Some scams are obvious from the start, others pull you in slowly with legitimate offers, and then BAM! They hit you big once they’ve gained your trust. It never hurts to learn common strategies to avoid scams.
This prize-scam has been around since I was kid (70’s and 80’s), and it probably started long before that. Anything that’s been around for decades must work... meaning people keep getting scammed (so be diligent).
And, if it's been around that long, it'll probably be here for many more years to come.
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To truly build multiple streams of passive income and a future you love, online marketing is the undisputed king.
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I hope this review of Global International Lottery and Sweepstakes was helpful.
If you have any questions, comments or an experience with Global you’d like others to be aware of, please share in the comments section below.
I personally had to learn the hard way about companies like Global International Lottery and Sweepstakes. I can remember getting letter in the mail saying that I won money although I had never entered a sweepstakes or lottery. Once I sent the “processing fee” and never got the money I supposedly won. Lesson learned for me. At this time I was desperate to find something that work and like you stated online marketing is king and finding the formal that works for you is the key to making money online. Great post!
Sorry to hear your story, but thank you for sharing. It may help someone else from losing their hard earned money. Some lessons are better learned from someone else’s experience.
Regards,
Jay
When I started reading, I thought, doesn’t sound like a scam, but then I kept reading
Do people pay money to this company? It’s a long shot but if they paying for it Be nice if they have a shot at winning
Thanks for the post, unfortunately there’s lots of scams out there, to bad some people aren’t honest
You’re right, there are a lot of scams out there. The worst part is that each one validates the other. What I mean is, they keep popping up because the ones that came before (or are still running) must be working. It would nice to say Karma ruled the day here but apparently that’s not always true.
Thank you for stopping by,
Jay