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Yahoo Lottery Scams: atmoffice@officeemailonline.com

Yahoo Lottery Scam Email:
atmoffice@officeemailonline.com
"YAHOO LOTTERY INC", "REV. PAUL FREDRICK MARTINS"

Did you know that Yahoo has a lottery? And that they give away huge amounts of money to people simply for having "an active online email account"? This is news to Yahoo, too. If you received an email from "YAHOO LOTTERY INC" at "atmoffice@officeemailonline.com" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "REV. PAUL FREDRICK MARTINS" to collect your winnings, it is a scam. Yahoo has never had any lottery (and we're pretty sure they never will). Yahoo certainly doesn't "collect email addresses" or selects winners "using a database of email addresses", or "from websites worldwide", or from "our computer ballot system". Each of those activities would be illegal in many countries, under existing privacy laws. Not to mention, it simply makes no sense for Yahoo to simply give away money. Real lotteries take in much more money than they give away, through ticket sales? Businesses are not lotteries - customers don't buy or use their products or services on the hope that the company will run a lottery for its customers. And it's just plain dumb to believe that!

The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam! Don't be an complete imbecile!

Below is the example of the fake email scam (the email is the scam, not any persons or companies named in the email) claiming to be from the "atmoffice@officeemailonline.com".

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:

Yahoo does not have or sponsor any lottery.
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Yahoo has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they suggest.
"No tickets were sold": You care to explain where the money comes from? Perhaps the lottery money fairy? Why would a lottery give away money to "email address randomly selected by a computer ballot draw system"? This is CLEARLY nonsense: you MUST, repeat MUST buy a ticket to have a chance of winning any lottery!
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. Don't you think Yahoo would write from their own corporate address?
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.

Actual scam email (One example - the scammers constantly change names, dates and addresses!):

AWARD

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($500,000.00 ) for the NEW YEAR 2008 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO LOTTERY INC for the introduction of the new YAHOO BETA MAIL which all YAHOO users are required to switch onto.
YAHOO! & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, arrange and gather all the e-mail addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to All email Address, and others we only select Nine(9) candidates per annually as our winners through Electronic Balloting System (EBS) without the candidate applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
We are sorry that your Payment Approval File was sent to Africa due to we have 3 lucky winners in Africa so that you can be cleared and paid simultaneously there. You are to contact our Location Claim Agent on or before your date of Claim.

Yahoo Beta Lottery Prize must be claimed not later than 14 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won.

Note: Any prize not claimed within this period (14 days) will be forfeited.

These are your identification numbers:

Batch number.....................YBM-EBS-360AF
Reff number........................YBM-EBS-710AF
Winning number...............YBM-EBS-718AF

These numbers above fall within the agent's Location file, you are requested to contact your Agent and send your Identification Numbers and Personal Information to him;

REV. PAUL FREDRICK MARTINS at his email:

E-mail: oclaims@yahoo.co.uk

You are therefore advised to send the following information to him to facilitate them and process the transfer of your fund with the appointed paying bank.

Send your Identification Numbers/Your Personal Information to him immediately:

Personal Information
1. Full name..................
2. Country....................
3. Contact Address...........
4. Telephone Number.........
5. Marital Status..............
6. Occupation..................
7. Age.........................
8. Sex.........................
9Means For Transfer Or Payment.
1 International Certified Bank Draft.
2 Account Transfer.
If Account Transfer you are to provide this information:
1; your full name: ------------------------------------
2; your address: --------------------------------------
3; sex: -----------------------------------------------
4: age: -----------------------------------------------
5: occupation: ----------------------------------------
6: nationality: ---------------------------------------
7: phone number: --------------------------------------
8: your bank name: ------------------------------------
9: your bank address: ---------------------------------
10: your account number: -----------------------------
11:Bank swift code---------------------------------------

Congratulations once again.
Yours in service,

We hope you're enjoying your new Yahoo! Mail account.

Now take the next step and claim your money and say thanks to Yahoo!.

You select how to transfer the prize money to you:

Cheque Delivery To Your Address

Bank Account Transfer

NOTE: NOBODY WILL TOUCH YOUR MONEY FOR ANY REASON AND AN AFFIDAVIT OF CLAIM WILL BE PRESENTED TO THE BANK BY THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT OF NIGERIA , BEFORE THE BANK CAN RELEASE YOUR MONEY.

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