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 "MrsDianne Thompson" at the "Camelot National Lottery" telling you that you won the a prize and to contact "Mr Phil Smith"? 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.
Courier / delivery charges are high due to Hardcover insurance Policy - If you respond to them, you will usually receive an email telling you you must pay delivery charges. First, as we mentioned earlier, no winner would ever have to pay delivery charges in a real lottery, sweepstakes or promotion. Secondly, there is no such thing as "hardcover insurance policies" . Go search in Google and see if you can find a definition for it!
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
From: Camelot Lottery [mailto: riversiderestaurant@eircom.net]
To: "."@iwon.com
Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 22:39:54 +0000
Subject: New Year Notification!
The Camelot Group,:
Operators of The National Lottery.
3b Olympic Way, Sefton Business Park,
Aintree, Liverpool , L30 1RD
EMAIL BALLOT LOTTERY WINNING NOTIFICATION
The Camelot National Lottery wishes to inform you that the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery international program by Great Britain held on 4TH JANUARY 2008. Your email account have been picked as a winner of a lump sum pay out of Eight hundred and ninty-one thousand, nine hundred and thirty-four Great Britain pounds (891,934.00 pounds sterlings) in cash credited to file REF NO. REF: CML/74-A0802742007. This is from total prize money of GBP 4,459,670.00 shared among the FIVE (5) international winners in this category.
All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web through computer balloting system drawn from over 100,000 names database, union associations and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion is this year's Camelot National Lottery NEW YEAR Year bonanza. The Camelot Group, operators of the Camelot National Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). All winning must be claimed not later than 14 working days from this notification. After this time all unclaimed funds will be retured to European Union Treasury as unclaimed. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number in all correspondence.Be adviced to keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.To begin your claim, please contact the online payment officer:
Mr Phil Smith,
Commercial and Operations Director
Email: onlinepaymentcentre2008@yahoo.co.uk
phone:+44 (0)701112 9430
He will brief you on steps to be taken for due processing and remittance of your prize money..
Note below your winning details:
Ticket Nº: 22-1356-4096-988
Serial Nº: A069-07
Lucky Nº: 12-13-21-26-32-39 Bonus-17
File REF Nº.: CML/74-A0802742007
BATCH Nº.: 2007CML-07
Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program.
N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the Winners will result to disqualification.
NOTE: Do not reply this mail. You are to contact your online payment officer immediately. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference number in every one of your correspondences.
*IMPORTANT* FILL OUT THIS WINNERS VERIFICATION FORM BELOW:
Your application for the claim of lottery winning prize will be duly processed and settlement made upon certification.Hence, carefully fill in the appropriate information in the space provided below for record purposes to facilitate our immediate commencement of your claims process. The completed form should be sent to your online payment officer /department for immediate commencement of prize remittance.
*Name of Beneficiary:........................
*Address:..............................................
*City/State:.........................
*Nationality:...................................
*Sex:..............................
*Email Address:.....................
*Tel:.................................
*Occupation:................................
*Next of Kin:.....................................
*Age:......................................
*AMOUNT WON:................................
*In Figures:................................................
*In Words:..........................................
*Lucky Nos:......................................
*Ticket No:..........................................
*phone no:............................................
Thanks
MrsDianne Thompson,
Chief Executive
CAMELOT GROUP.
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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