Money scams are nothing new in Tauranga, and when one resident received an invitation to play the Irish lotto, he thought things were a bit ‘hinky'.

The resident, who wishes not to be named, contacted SunLive thinking he was being sent a joke.

An invitation sent to a Tauranga resident to play the Irish Lotto.

SunLive contacted the European Lottery Guild questioning the legitimateness of the invitation.

But a spokesperson from the European Lottery Guild says they have been in business for 25 years and that everything is above board.

'The best I could suggest (if people are in doubt of the legitimateness of the invitation) is to visit our website and that will have all the details about our company.

'If people have any questions they can send an email to us and we will have one of our officers respond.

'We have been around for a very long time and we are the biggest and oldest mail order lottery company.”

The website address is www.europeanlotteryguild.com

'The website has loads of information about our website and everything else and we also have a page dedicated to how to spot lottery scams which compares our company to what you usually see.”

If people are in doubt, they are advised to contact the guild directly by calling the freephone number on their website or emailing [email protected]