Consumer Agency Warns "Beware of Consumer Harm from Lotto Winning Number Prediction Services"

An elderly person visiting a Lotto sales store is carefully coloring the number blanks with earnestness. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Consumer damages related to services that claim to predict winning Lotto numbers are increasing.

According to the Korea Consumer Agency on the 20th, consumer damage relief applications related to Lotto winning number prediction services reached 88 cases last year, more than double the 41 cases in 2018.

Lotto prediction services are services where businesses arbitrarily combine numbers and provide them to consumers for a fee, claiming that these numbers can predict Lotto winnings. The predicted numbers are provided according to the membership period and grade, and the subscription fee varies from less than 100,000 KRW to over 1,000,000 KRW depending on the grade.

Among the damage relief applications, 81.8% (72 cases) were related to 'contract termination,' where consumers canceled contracts and requested refunds because the predicted winning numbers continuously failed to win, but the businesses refused.

There were also cases where refunds were not provided despite promises to refund the subscription fee if the numbers did not win, citing that the refund criteria in the terms and conditions were not met or that the case did not qualify for a refund.

Lotto prediction service providers were found to secure mobile phone numbers under the pretext of offering free winning number prediction services on the internet, then induce paid subscriptions through telemarketing. Among last year's damage relief applications, 42 cases (47.7%) involved subscriptions through telephone solicitation sales.

Analysis of 85 cases with confirmed ages among last year's damage relief applications showed that people in their 20s and 30s accounted for the highest proportion at 25.9% each, followed by those in their 50s at 21.2%.

The Consumer Agency urged consumers to prevent damages related to prediction services by ▲ not blindly trusting the winning possibilities presented by businesses when signing contracts ▲ securing evidence such as written agreements or recordings for any additional proposals made by the business beyond the contract terms.

Additionally, since Lotto prediction service contracts fall under 'continuous transactions' according to the Act on Door-to-Door Sales, etc., which can be terminated at any time, consumers were advised to notify the business by certified mail if they wish to cancel.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.