In the past few days, private individuals have received phone calls from persons purporting to work for the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB). The callers promised these persons that lottery winnings would be paid out to them for a fee. Die OeNB expressly points out that such phone calls are obviously an attempt to commit fraud and that the calls in question were definitely not made by OeNB staff. The OeNB does not pay out lottery winnings, nor has it ever done so. The OeNB strongly advises people who receive such calls not to make any payments and urges them to inform their local police authority.

In another case of fraud, last week a counterfeit guarantee of the OeNB for a construction company referred to as "BOEMI Giovanni B-Baumanagement Group GmbH" came to the OeNB's attention. The guarantee certificate and the signatures on the certificate are crude forgeries; one of the the alleged signatories is not even an OeNB staff member. The OeNB explicitly points out that it does not issue guarantees for construction projects of any type. The OeNB urgently advises persons or companies that are offered such a counterfeit guarantee not to make any payments in connection with or as the result of this counterfeit guarantee and to contact the police authorities instead.

Moreover, the OeNB calls attention to the fact that it is not a commercial bank.

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