Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
There are affiliate links on this page.
Read our disclosure policy to learn more.
Have you received an email from "SIR GEORGE HARRY" at the "UK NATIONAL LOTTERY" telling you that you won the "online Sweepstakes International program" or something similar? It is a scam.
There are only two legal large lotteries in Britain, the National Lottery and the Monday Lottery, anyway, and they do NOT use email to notify winners. Below is a scam email actually received.
DO NOT reply to any emails you receive that claim 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, see this page to find out what happens next!
Other resources:
Also
In the UK, call the hotline at 020 7211 8111 to check or report lottery scams.
There are many other signs that this is a fraud that we have highlighted in the email below, typically including one or more of these:
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 random CapItaLiZAtion and often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". Real lotteries proofread their emails and use people who can write above the 3rd grade level.
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!
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.
The National Lottery
PO Box 1010
Liverpool L70 1NL United Kingdom.Ref: XYL /26510460037/05
Batch: 24/00319/IPDWINNING NOTIFICATION
We happily announce to you the Draw (#1167) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY,online UK National Lottery program held on 7th March 2007. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475600545188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers :04 09 20 22 34 40 38(Bonus ball) which subsequently won you the lottery in the 1st category i.e match 6 plus bonus .
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £1,532,720 (One Million, Five Hundred And Thirty Two Thousand, Seven Hundred And Twenty Pounds Sterling) in cash credited to file XYL /26510460037/05 This is from a total cash prize of £4,596,411 (Four Million, Five Hundred And Ninety Six Thousand, Four Hundred And Eleven Pounds Sterling).
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 is an end of year promotional draw in which there were no tickets sold.
To file for your claim, please contact your fudiciary agent immediately via the email below.
Mr. James Keegan
EMAIL: ukverificationofficer1@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: +44 7011131010
Fax: +44 700 596 37 93Cordially,
SIR GEORGE HARRY
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
***