Sweep ticket fraud
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At a wayside sweep ticket counter at Olcott Mawatha, Pettah, bystanders are furiously scratching the surface of a ticket hoping for a windfall. On closer examination it’s not the normal tickets sold by the National Lotteries Board but fake ones. The modus operandi is to sell 10 tickets in one sheet at Rs. 10 each per customer. A flat prize of Rs. 2,000 is promised if all the 10 tickets are minus any hidden number. Invariably at least one ticket has Rs. 10 or Rs.20 which is what the buyer gets for the Rs. 100 investment. Other lottery sellers say this is a fake ticket but were unsure about its origins. Pic by Athula Devapriya