"Congratulations, you've won": why the winner is the one who pays

The short version

No company picks people at random and gives them cars. And when there is a real draw, the winner never pays to collect. Any "prize" that wants money from you before it arrives is the prize itself: your money.

The common shapes

• The call: "This is the mobile operator. Your number came up in the monthly draw and you've won 50,000 EGP. To transfer it we need the card number and the code on the back." Or: "Buy 500 EGP of recharge cards as an activation fee and send us the numbers."
• The message: "Congratulations, you've won a prize" with a link. The link opens a page that looks like a bank or a company and asks for your name, number and card. Banque Misr warned its customers about this exact message and said the prizes are fictitious and the link exists to steal data.
• The payment machine: in a documented case, the accused convinced victims they had won a prize from a mobile operator and sent them to an electronic payment kiosk "to collect", where they were in fact transferring money to the scammers without understanding the screen.

Why it fools so many people

The caller plays on joy and urgency at once: "you have to collect today or it goes to the next person". And the fee is "small" next to the prize, so the mind says "why not try".

Companies that run real draws announce them on their official pages, contact winners from numbers that show their name, and never ask for recharge cards or a PIN.

Signs of the scam

• You never entered any draw.
• You are asked to pay, recharge, or give a card number or a code.
• An unknown number or a link in a message.
• Urgency and a threat that the prize will be lost.

What to do

1. Hang up and don't tap the link.
2. If a known company's name was used, call its customer service on its official number and ask. One minute settles it.
3. If you paid or bought cards: cards whose numbers were sent are hard to recover, but file a report with the cybercrime police (108) with the messages and numbers, and tell the operator.
4. Report the number in Kansel. The prize call goes round to thousands of people a day; every report cuts its path short.

Sources

• Banque Misr warns customers about the "Congratulations, you've won" message, Al-Watan (Arabic)
• "Congratulations, you've won": a message that drains your money and takes over your account, Al-Watan (Arabic)
• "Congratulations, you've won a prize": ways people fall into the scam, Al-Dostor (Arabic)