Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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There is only one legal national lottery in Ireland, the National Lottery and it does NOT use email to notify winners. Here is a warning from this page on the Irish Lottery website about scams from the Irish Lottery:
20/November/2006
WARNING
It has come to our attention that members of the public have received correspondence by e-mail or letter purporting to come from the Irish National Lottery advising them that they have won a substantial amount of money. Such correspondence often requests the addressee's personal and bank details. The Irish National Lottery never notifies prize winners in this manner. To win and claim a prize in the Irish National Lottery you must be in possession of a prize winning ticket.
You are advised not to respond to any such correspondence.
The emails include full-color logos on the top, a green background and even
include the Irish harp and other symbols and logos from the legitimate lottery.
The email begins with "IRISH GOVERNMENT ACCREDITED LICENSED IRISH WEB LOTTERY IS
REGISTERED UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION ACT" and includes a false registration
number. The email goes on to say "we are pleased to announce to you the
draw of the IRISH LOTTERY PROGRAMME online Sweepstakes International Program
held on ,date>" and that the recipient's email address was attached to the
winning ticket.
The email includes considerably more official sounding information, such as a
serial number, ticket number, and claims: "You have therefore been approved to
claim a total sum of €3,048,206 in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/06 of
Irish Lottery,".
As usual with this type of scam, it claims that participants and winners were
selected randomly from databases of email addresses on the Internet and included
unions, associations, and corporations.
The victim is then instructed to contact their agent (with a non-working UK
phone number and - as is typical - a free yahoo email address. By now, anyone
who isn't utterly gullible ought to recognize the obvious scam.
Similarly, the Irish Lottery is a legal lottery operating in Ireland which is also the subject of many scams.
DO NOT reply to any emails you receive saying that you have won a lottery that you did not enter. They are frauds. You will lose your money. There is no "free lunch"; don't be foolish and believe a scam! We can not say it any more plainly: YOU WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL BY ANY LEGITIMATE LOTTERY THAT YOU WON A PRIZE. If you do receive such an email, it IS a fraud, do not reply to it! If you DID reply to one, click here to see what you will likely receive back.
Below is a typical scam email, this one received in January 2007. Notice the many typos and misspellings. Also notice the yahoo.com email address they are using. No real lottery would use a free email account on Yahoo to transact business! Of course, they tell you not to tell anyone about this (especially the police! )
You can see more real examples of fraud Irish National Lottery emails on this page and this page.
The Irish Lottery
P O Box 1010
11 G Lower Dorset Street,
Dublin 1, Ireland
(Customer Services)
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
WINNING NOTIFICATION:
We happily announce to you the draw (#1004) of the IRISH LOTTERY online Sweepstakes International program held on Sat 30 Dec 2006 - 9.26pm. It is now available for claims and you are getting the final NOTIFICATION as regards this.
Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers: 16-17-20-28-31-35 with a bonus of 04. which subsequently won you the lottery in the 1st category i.e match 5 plus bonus.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 350,000.00 (Three Hundred And Fifty Thousand Euros) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03, your winning ticket in this category i.e Match 6 plus bonus.All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weekly. Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your 350,000.00 (Three Hundred And Fifty Thousand Euros) will be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.
Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate th e release of your funds as soon as you contact him.For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.
This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned!!!
To file for your claim, contact our fiduciary agent:
MR McConell Simpson.
Email: simpsoncmm@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: +44-704-570-2548
NOTE: Due to frequent calls on these telephone lines; calls may not go through due to conjection. Please keep trying. We sincerely apologise for the inconviniences.
Endeavour to email/fax him your full names,winning numbers,email address,telephone and fax numbers immediately.
Congratulations from me and members of staff of THE IRISH LOTTERY. Yours faithfully,
VIVIAN RAY(Miss)
Online coordinator for THE IRISH LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.
Confidentiality Notice:
LETTER FROM THE
LOTTERY COMPANY
From: National Lottery
Reply-To: drmarkomeara2001@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: LETTER FROM THE LOTTERY COMPANY
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 11:12:05 -0800
Dear Winner,
The Irish Lottery Gaming Board and all the staff of this great company are
pleased to inform You that Your email address has won the online lottery draw
held on the 8th of Decemeber 2006.
On behalf of the Irish Lottery Board, I want to congratulate You for emerging
the winner of this month draw.The draw was done electronically with several
email addresses provided to this office by microsoft to enhance the utilization
of the internet. Your email address was attached to Reference Number IR/9420X2/68
was Picked as One Of the Five Winning email Addresses. This have Qualified You
to Claim the total Cash Prize Of One Million, Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand
Euro. (1,350,000EURO).
Your Winning Check Will be Handed Over to You as soon as Our Claims Department
Verify Your Winning After You Might have filled the Payment Processing Form that
Will be Given to You In Due Course. We Do Not need Your Bank Information for You
to Claim Your Winnings.
You are Advised to Contact Our Claims Agent:
DR MARK MEARA though his email address:
drmarkomeara2001@yahoo.co.uk
or telephone Number :+447011149566 Please Quote Your Reference Number as IR/9420X2/68
when You are Filing Your Claims. Congratulations From All Our Members Of Staff.
IRISH NATIONAL LOTTERY TEAM
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