Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from "Chief Clyde A. Jenne" at "SKY LOTTERY BALLS LTD " telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Mr.Morrision Brandon" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. No legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners vian email (see footnote)! The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam!
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 "SKY LOTTERY BALLS LTD ".
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.
"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.
FROM: SKY LOTTERY BALLS 2007 GAME, UNITED KINGDOM.
COMMERCE HOUSE, SECOND FLOOR,
6 LONDON STREET, LONDON, W2 1HR
Registered No. 05718271
We are pleased to announce you as one of the 100 lucky winners in the SKY LOTTERY BALLS draw held on the 19th Febuary, 2008 All 100 winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails. Your email address emerged alongside 99 others as a category 2 winner In this year's annual SKY LOTTERY BALLS draw. Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of $3,000,000,00(Three Million US Dollars) only. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers all correspondence
1,Email ticket number: ticket # 88171/29281/57363
2,BATCH: # 742-109-527-UK43
3,the file Ref #: 920/210/4509
4,lucky # 4-9-15-25-30-40-42
5,lotto code #: FL09622/UK
Please contact the under listed claims officer as soon as possible for the immediate release of your winnings:
Mr.Morrision Brandon
Tel : +447031967189
Chief Clyde A. Jenne
THE SKY LOTTERY BALLS LIMITED
Email: agentmorrisionbrandon@googlemail.com
For processing and remittance of your cash to a designated account of your choice. Remember, all winnings must be claim not later than one month as from today. After this date, all unclaimed funds will be returned to the International Lotto, you should contact Mr.Morrision Brandon about the claimant procedures, send your Fax and telephone to Mr.Morrision Brandon, this will enable his office to send the claims application form (A4) to you the Beneficiary. Please note, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers all correspondence.
Further more, should there be any change of address do inform Mr.Morrision Brandon as soon as possible. Mr.Morrision Brandon is responsible for the processing of your approved file to the bank for payment. Congratulations once again, from all members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program.Once again on behalf of all our staff, reply to
((agentmorrisionbrandon@googlemail.com ))
CONGRATULATIONS!!! Sincerely, SKY LOTTERY-GROUP COMPANY
Promotions Manager the Lotto Company
************************************************************* ********
Copyright 1994-2007 the United Kingdom SKY LOTTERY Email Group
Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Service - Guidelines
Sincerely,
SKY LOTTERY BALLS LTD
Promotions manager
The lotto company
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.