Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Mrs. Becky Owen of "Electronic Lottery Programs" just sent you an email, saying you won hundreds of thousands of "Great British Pounds"? Don't get too excited: It is a scam. Notice the similarity to this scam letter.
They have a great gibberlish line about "This is to encourage our prominent and consistent Microsoft Internet Explorer users all over the world, and for the Continues use of E-mail". they managed to combine a nonsense idea and poor grammar in one sentence.
Of course, there's no such thing as a FREE lotto or lottery. And Microsoft and Yahoo, which are competitors, are neither going to give away money together to random people, nor for the purpose of the "continues use of email". There are many other signs that this is a fraud, not the least of which is that no legitimate lottery uses email to notify its winners!
And a legitimate lottery certainly would not use free hotmail, yahoo, elitist, or aim email accounts. Especially a free account from Hong Kong. .
In addition to the usual clues, notice the gibberish writing, excessive/incorrect use of CAPITAL letters, lack of decent punctuation.. The sentences don't even make sense. Hardly what a professional (i.e., real) lottery would do. Note the other clues to an obvious fraud that we have highlighted in the letter; keep confidential, selected by a random computer lottery of email addresses, use of free email accounts, etc.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
Also see this page for a sample in the UK.
From: Mrs becky owen [contactclaims@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 9:28 AM
To: info_internationalawards002@yahoo.de
Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION!!EUROPEAN PRIZE AWARD DEPT
1 Plough Place,
London EC4A 1DE
UNITED KINGDOMREF: WE67/4360/34
BATCH: 11/4578/GNDear Sir/Ma .
Top of days greetings to you. Finally today, we announce that you are one of the winners of the ELECTRONIC LOTTERY PROGRAMS. held on 1st March,2007. Your company and your personal e-mail addresses, attached to ticket number: 7-1-8-36-4-22 under agent ID: 18 and lucky ball number 7363789,which consequently won in the Tenth lottery category. You have therefore been awarded a lump sum pay out of 860,641.28 Great British Pounds (GBP) which amounts to $1,500,000.00 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States DOLLARS). The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. No ticket were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy.
This is to encourage our prominent and consistent Microsoft Internet Explorer users all over the world, and for the Continues use of E-mail. Your fund has been insured with your identification number {CPEL/OWN/9876}. To claim your winning prize, you must first contact the claims department by email for Processing and remittance of your prize to you. Mr.David Nelson TEL:+44-701-113-2446 TEL:+44-702-407-7543 TEL:+44-702-402-3245 FAX:+44-707-570-0301 EMAIL: european_lotterycompany03@yahoo.com.hk
Do email the above email address all at once. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and winning numbers in all correspondences with your claims officer. You are to keep all lotto information away from the general public especially your ticket number and ballot number. All your personal datas are to be sent to YAHOO/MICROSOFT ACCREDITED AGENT vian email for the processing of your winning.
FILL THE FORM BELOW WITH YOUR DATAS
1.Full Name:____________________
2.Address:______________________
3.Nationality:____________________
4.Age:______________________________
5.Occupation:____________________
6.Phone:________________________
7.State of Origin:_________________
8.Country:______________________
Sincerely,
Mrs. Becky Owen
Online Co-ordinator Secretary ====================================================
OUR Executives:
Dr. P. Swier (CEO), Mr. Gerald Goodman (Manager Foreign Operations), Mr. Franklyn Van Der Weijden (Manager Domestic Banking Operations), Dr. James Williams (Director International Credit Department), Mrs. Lonni K Anderson (Legal Representative), Mrs. Lyudmyla Marchukova(Regional Manager), Mr. Stephen Boer (Chairman), Mr. Chris Moritz(International Relation Officer).
From: Mrs Becky Owen < jfm01@bellsouth.net >
Date: 2007/03/06
To: < claiminfo_prize@yahoo.co.uk >
Subject: CALL TO CONFIRMUK National/PRIZE AWARD DEPT
Government Accredited Licensed Promoters,
79 BOVILL ROAD LONDON. SE23 1EL.Ref: EGS-2251256003/-02
Batch: 14/0017/1PDBONANZA 2007!!!
The board of directors and entire member of staff of the National Lottery wishes to inform you of the result of the (Email Address Ballot) online Sweepstakes international program held at the British Headquarter.
Your email account have been picked as a winner of £1,500,000.00 (ONE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED GREAT BRITISH POUNDS) in cash credited to file KU/9023118308/03.
This results is now released your email address attached to Draw 1034 27th january 2007 Jackpot 04-09-10-19-54-37 Bonus ball 28 participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from Microsoft users from company and individual email addresses users.
Be advice 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, For the release of your winning.
All winning must be claimed not later than One Week of Acknowledgment. After this date all unclaimed funds will be returned 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. You are therefore advised to give the following information's to your claims agent listed bellow,
Full names........
Address..............
Age....................
Winning numbers.........
Winning sum................
Email address..............
Telephone/Fax number...........
Marital status.................. Occupation.......................
Nationallity......................
Country..............
Contact person: Mr David Nelson
(International Remittance Department)
Tel:447011147240
Fax:447075700234
E-mail: lotteryagentinfo_contact@yahoo.com.hkCongratulations from the staff and thank you for being part of email account users program.
Yours Sincerely,
Becky Owen.
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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