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.
Translate this page to any language by choosing a language in the box below.
Have you received an email from "the Notification Office" at "The Rand Gold Mega Million Promotion team & Online Lottery" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Mr. Tau Baloyi" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. Lotteries don't give money away to people who don't buy tickets - not even as a "promotion". That's just dumb; it would not motivate anyone to BUY a ticket! And No legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners vian email (see footnote) The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam!
Even if you are like our example victim, Joe Gullible, surely the obvious facts that the scam email contains a website that is written in Russian, a phone number in South Africa and an email address from New Zealand would catch your attention. Did you even see a "Rand Gold Online Lottery" website? If they are online, wouldn't they have a website? Well??? If the fact that nothing matches and it covers 3 different continents doesn't tell you it is a scam, you are utterly hopeless.
Below is another example of a fake lottery; this email claims to be from the "The Rand Gold Mega Million Promotion team & Online Lottery".
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.
Rand Gold / Mega Million Promotion / SA [ randgold@xsecurity.org ]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A G R E A T W I N N I N G
Rand Gold Mega Million Promotion team & Online Lottery
Tel: +27 73 4161 989
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CONGRATULATIONS
The Rand Gold Mega Million Promotion team & Online Lottery is proud to inform you that you have won € 830,000.00
WHY YOU HAVE WON
Your E-mail address is one of 7 lucky Addresses that have won in the weekly Promotion.
HOW DID YOU WIN
The Rand Gold Mega Million Promotion, is a new Internet based Lottery, Whereby all winners are selected by internet/email server, this email server visits all Internet providers and email address around the globe, be it .com, .org, .net and all country based web abbreviations, as you have .ca in Canada and .uk in United Kingdom, AOL and hotmails.
We select one million email addresses from all over the globe (Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Australia) to run the draw; this is a bonus from African Microsoft Society to email users. After the draw 7 email addresses become the winning e-mail address.
DETAILS ON THE WINNINGS
Your Winning Serial Number is: AMS/73253ZA/2007, Batch Number: 010107/ZA/2007. Just contact our processing agent / Africa regional claim department below for claiming of your prize and remember to quote your Serial and Batch Number and Winning Email Address for easy processing of your prize. That's it!
INTERNATIONAL CLAIMS DEPT.
RAND GOLD MEGA MILLION PROMOTIONS
Processing Manager: Mr. Tau Baloyi
Email: taubaloyi@mailbox.co.za
24hrs Tel: +27 73 4161 989
Before proceeding with your claim, endeavor to call the processing manager for clarification.
Congratulations again and have a lot of fun.
Notification Office
Rand Gold Mega Million Promotion
© Copyright 2007 All rights reserved
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
***