Camelot has reassured stores of the legitimacy of a company calling retailers, claiming to be partnered with the lottery operator and requesting store information.

Hertfordshire branch president Raju Patel told Better Retailing that a retailer had contacted him warning others to report any call they receive from Kokoro to the lottery operator.

“I received a voicemail from a retailer claiming that the company was wrongly pretending to be Camelot’s marketing company calling on behalf of the National Lottery,” he said.

Better Retailing understands that other retailers had also been wary of the company after it allegedly requested details about their lottery services.

Alpesh Patel, owner of Wheathampstead Post Office in Hertfordshire, confirmed that he had also been made aware of the warning about the company.

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“I heard that we are to get in touch with the National Lottery if we hear from them,” he said.

“If there are scams that exist like this it would be good if Camelot were aware of this.

“They could ensure a message was sent to us on our system when we open the shop for the day, so that we can work together on issues like this.”

However, a spokesperson for Camelot confirmed to Better Retailing that Kokoro is Camelot’s official marketing company. “Kokoro, previously known as ABA, run our retailer satisfaction survey and have been doing so for the past two years,” they said.

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“To ensure they are speaking to the right person in store, Kokoro will ask for a Camelot retailer ID number – so we can reassure our retail partners that these are legitimate calls being made on our behalf.”

Raju Patel added that he will inform retailers of the error. “I will be sure to let retailers know about the reassurance from Camelot,” he said.

“It’s good to get clarification on this issue that has clearly been worrying retailers.”

Stores are understood to be wary of similar calls due to common scams involving fraudsters trying to get stores to hand over voucher codes over the phone from payments processed on PayPoint, Post Office or Payzone terminals.

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