Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from "Mrs Ruth Fraiser" at "SPONSOR LOTERIJ INTERNATIONAL or Euro Million Lotto or the "Foundation for the Promotion of Software Products (F.P.S.)" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Peter Hands" to collect your winnings? Is it a lottery? A sweepstakes? A promotion? Which one is the company? You don't remember buying a ticket and it says "your email address" won! It's so confusing because it is a scam. No legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners vian email (see footnote) The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam!
Below is another example of a fake lottery; this email claims to be from the "SPONSOR LOTERIJ INTERNATIONAL or Euro Million Lotto or the "Foundation for the Promotion of Software Products (F.P.S.)".
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery will ever email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud. We have highlighted some of these in the email below, not the least of which are:
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Microsoft has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they suggest.
Terrible spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar - Scammers apparently don't know how to use spell checkers. We assume they dropped out of school before that class. They use almost excessive and random CapItaLiZAtion. They often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level. Being non-native English speakers, they also often get first names and surnames (last names reversed), so you will frequently see names like "Mr. SMITH JAMES.", instead of "Mr. James Smith", along with the peculiar usage of periods (full stops) and spaces or the lack thereof. Real lotteries also proofread their emails and look and read more professional.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use its own email, its own domain and website?
Keep Confidential - Real lotteries THRIVE on publicity - they don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy more tickets. there is NO risk of "double claiming" because they can validate where the ticket numbers were sold. The scammer want you to keep quiet because they don't want the police or ConsumerFraudreporting to hear about them! It should read: "For our own security, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential until we have finished scamming you!"
Email notification: NO REAL LOTTERY SENDS AN EMAIL TO NOTIFY WINNERS. Period. Full-stop. End of story. There mere fact ALONE that you received an email saying you won a lottery is proof that it is a scam.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
From : winning claim <peterhands0022@hotmail.com>
Sent : Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:36 AM
Subject : YOU HAVE WON CONTACT THE CLAIM AGENT!!!!!!!YOU HAVE WON CONTACT THE CLAIM AGENT!!!!!!!
SPONSOR LOTERIJ INTERNATIONAL
PROMOTION PRIZE AWARD DEPT.FILE REF:HL/5564/40/07
BATCH: 100/8347/5PDG /EA
OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION:DEAR WINNER:
It is obvious that this notification will come to you as a Suprise but please find time to read it carefully while We congratulate you over your success in the following official publication of results of the E-mail electronic online Sweepstakes organized by the EURO MILLION LOTTO corporation, in conjunction with the foundation for the promotion of software products,(F.P.S.), held on the 27th of March 2007,in Amsterdam The Netherlands. wherein your email address emerged as one of the online winning email in the 1st category and therefore attracted a cash award of 850,000.00Euros (Eight hundred and fifty thousand Euros only). Our winners are arranged into four categories with different winning prizes accordingly in each category.They are arrangedin this format below:
CATEGORY NO.OF WINNERS WINNING PRIZES
1st. 6 850.000:00euros each
2nd. 16 200.000:00euros each
3rd. 22 100,000:00euros each
We write to officially notify you of this award and to advise you to contact the processing office immediately upon receipt of this message for more information concerning the verification, processing and eventual payment of the above prize to you. It is important to note that your award information was released with the following particularsattached to it.
(1) Award numbers: NL 56/7765
(2) Email ticket numbers: NL553/26/96
(3) Batch numbers: 100/8347/5PDG /EA
(4) Reference numbers: HL/5564/40/07
For verification purpose be sure to include:
(1) Your mailing address.
(2) Your telephone numbers.
(3) Your country.
To file for your claim,Please contact sponsorloterij claim department with the imformation stated below for your winning within Twenty-nine working days of this winning notification.Winnings that are not validated within Twenty-nine working days of winning notification are termed void andinvalid. You are required to mention the above particulars of your award in every correspondence to enable him validate your winning. To file for your claim, please contact our processing/your claim agent
NAME: PETER HANDS
CITY/ COUNTRY:AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
FREE SERVICE NUMBER:0031-630-221-083
EMAIL: dayzersinfo002@aim.com********************************************************************
The EURO MILLION LOTTO Awards is sponsored by a consortium of software promotion companies. The Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers, Microsoft and
other international companies. The SPONSOR LOTERIJ internet draw is held periodically and is so organized to encourage the use of the Internet and promote computer literacy worldwide. Once again on behalf of all our staff,Unvalidated winnings after Twenty-nine days of winning notification will be termed invalid and void. Congratulations from me and members of staff of SPONSORLOTERIJ
Mrs Ruth Fraiser
Co-ordinator
Copyright ? 2006 NATIONAL LOTTERY INC.All rights reserved.Terms of Service - Guideline
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule - and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would not be questioning it.