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 "Rev. Larry Lee" at "YEAR 2008 YAHOO! Lottery promotion"
telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something
similar, and to contact "Rev Larry" 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 lottery scam claiming to
be from the "YEAR 2008 YAHOO! Lottery promotion".
-
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 (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, etc.) -
often not even a Yahoo free 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.
From: YAHOO AWARD INC <y
aholotoinc2008@avasmail.com.mv
>
Subject: Dear Winner..........Claim Your Yahoo Lottery
Prize Award.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2008, 7:11 AM
YAHOO! REGIONAL OFFICE
Baley House,Harold Road
Sutton.Greater London
SM14te,London,
UNITED KINGDOM.
Dear Winner..........Claim Your Yahoo Lottery Prize
Award.
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of
ONE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($1,000,000.00) in the YEAR 2008 YAHOO!
Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO! LOTTERY INC for the introduction
and Launching of the new YAHOO! BETA MAIL which all YAHOO! subscribers are
required to switch to. YAHOO! & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, arranged and gathered all the
e-mail addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that
subscribe at YAHOO!, HOTMAIL and others, we only selected THREE (3) candidates
as our winners after undergoing the random selection process through Electronic
Balloting System (E.B.S) without the candidate applied, we congratulate you for
being one of the people selected.
Note: You are advise and required to quote your
identification numbers correct.
You are therefore advised to send the following
information to him to facilitate and process the claim of your Winning prize
with the appointed paying bank.
IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS:
Batch number.....................YBM-EBS-390AF
Reff number........................YBM-EBS-719AF
Winning number...............YBM-EBS-798AF
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
1. Full name..................
2. Nationality....................
3. Contact Address......
4. Telephone Number..
5. Marital Status.........
6. Occupation..............
7. Age..........................
8. Sex...........................
9. Atternative E-mail add:.....
Below Here is the E-mail contact and telephone number of
your claim agent.
Rev. Larry Lee at his email:
E-mail:
rev.lee@lottoclaimsagent.com
Alter Email
add:revlarrylee@hotmail.com
Phone: +44-702-405-4692
Note:This prize will be released to you from any of our
promotional banks as will be directed by the United Kingdom Claim/verification
agent.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo Inc!. All rights reserved.
