The scam came during a particularly rough patch for Jason Bingald; his hometown of Cobargo was ravaged by bushfires, his elderly mother's health was on the decline, and his car had been set on fire at the Wagga showgrounds.

However Mr Bingald thought his luck had turned around when he received what seemed to be a $250,000 winning scratchie in the mail.

"You think to yourself - my god, is this my day?" Mr Bingald said.

"It made me happy for a whole week until I found out I'd been scammed."

Mr Bingald's week of bliss was cut short when his son told him that the scratchie was a fake, but by that point he'd already gone out and spent money on donations.

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Within 24 hours of receiving the scratchie he bought 35 pallets of supplies to send to the fire-struck people in Cobargo and was excitedly hatching plans for how he would support his family and community back home.

Many of his friends and former neighbours had lost everything to the bushfires, and his tiny town shot to national prominence when angry locals refused to shake the hand of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

"It's a heritage town, it's the richest land you've got in all of NSW but the people are all poor; nobody's got any money," Mr Bingald said.

"On top of that you've got the scummy scammers - to do that at the wrong time when everybody's having fires is disgusting."

Mr Bingald was still able to send the supplies down to Cobargo, but having discovered the scratchie was fake he ended up significantly out of pocket.

Mr Bingald's chain of bad luck continues unbroken, and now he's begging Wagga locals to remain wary of any free scratchies that appear in the post.

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