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Lottery Scam Email:
UK National Lottery
"John A Edward", "john.edward123@yahoo.co.uk"
Have you received an email from "John A Edward" at "UK National Lottery" telling you that "your
email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to
contact him at "john.edward123@yahoo.co.uk" to collect your winnings? It is a
scam. No legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners via email (see footnote)! The scammers may
change the names and details, but it is still a scam!
We particularly like that the potential victim actually asks the
scammer "are you for real or is this another scam?" Folks, let's make one thing
clear: no scammer is going to TELL YOU that he's attempting to scam you. That
would rather defeat the purpose, don't you think? Instead, they will tell
you whatever you want to hear, whatever they think you will believe. You
must use common sense and investigate!
Absolutely it is a scam. He’s writing from a free Yahoo
email account. The scammer is bring God into a business transaction, something
no business professional in the Western World would ever do. He’s telling you,
in a transaction of a huge amount of money, that you worry too much about
“Identity thefts and possible internet frauds”. That is an insane and asinine
thing to suggest.
His syntax and grammar are pathetic and indicative of a
non-native English speaker, a child, or perhaps a simple moron: “strongly advice
you…”, “but be rest and assured”.
Without question, it is a scam, as is and will be EVER
email that you ever receive that tells you that you won money for these simple
reasons:
-
You must buy a
ticket to win a lottery.
-
A winning without a
purchase is called a sweepstakes or promotion, not a lottery.
-
Random giveaways to
people who have a “valid email address” has no business value and would be a
pointless exercise in stupidity. NO BUSINESS, NO GOVERNMENT, NO ORGANIZATION
OF ANY KIND WOULD DO THIS.
-
Lotteries are highly
regulated: ordinary businesses like Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, BMW, etc, could
not and would not sponsor nor operate a lottery.
Below is the example of the fake lottery scam claiming to
be from the "UK National 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. Other signs 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.
-
"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.
Names are usually in all capital letters for some reason known only to these
illiterate criminals. 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 it's own email, it's 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.
Actual scam email (One example - the scammers constantly change
names, dates and addresses!):
The Scammer wrote telling
the victim that he won a lottery (we don't have that email), and the victim
wrote, asking for some proof; to which the scammer replied:
-----Original Message-----
From: John A Edward <john.edward123@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 2:02 pm
Subject: Attn:
hhhhhh@aol.com
(Email Owner)
Dear
email address owner
Thank you for your response. It is obvious that you
bother too much about Identity Theft and possible Internet Frauds.
However, we really understand the reasons for your skepticisms. But be rest and
assured that your Lottery Winning is real and legitimate. Maybe this is a way
God wants to pay you back.
All
you have to do now is to contact the Bank where your lottery funds are
deposited. As soon as they receive your email, they will instruct you on their
privacy terms & conditions as governed in their banking systems
I
can assure you that you do not need to be scared about this winning notification
that you have received from us. I cannot
imagine myself lying to poor citizens for no good reason. I strongly
advice you to follow all my
advices and it shall be well with you. I am just an employee in this Lotteyr
Office, but I think I can help you to the fullest you want.
Reply soon.
Greetings,
John
Edward,
Claims Agent,
UK
National Lottery.
The victim wrote back:
ARE YOU FOR REAL OR ANOTHER
SCAM THAT YOU PEOPLE FROM THE UK ARE SENDING AS WELL I FEEL YOU ARE AND I DID
SAVE EVERY EMAIL AND WILL TURN THEM OVER TO US AUTHORITIES
And the scammer replied:
-----Original Message-----
From: John A Edward <john.edward123@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:19 am
Subject: Re: Attn: hhhhhh@aol.com (Email Owner)
Hello!
How are you doing today? We have been expecting to get a
feedback from you, but until now we have no response from your end. Could you
kindly advice this office the reasons for your silence.
We hope to complete the release process of your claims as
soon as possible.
Warm Greetings from the Lotto Staff,
John Edward.
Names of Scam / Fake / Fraud Lottery
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery
scams companies
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule
- and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would used their
safegaurds.
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule
- and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would not be
questioning it.
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