Have you received an email from "Mrs Rose Hills" at "The Lottery Department of Volkswagen Automobiles" saying you won
their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Mr. Allen Roger" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. And don't get too excited if the names are different; the scammers
make many versions of this scam!
It is actually a very simple scam. They claim you won a
promotion, which is giving away millions of dollars based on a randomly selected
email address. The scam is obvious: it's simply preposterous to think that
any company would randomly give away money to encourage you to buy their product. That would be self-defeating.
There are many other signs that this is a fraud that we have
highlighted 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 random
CapItaLiZAtion and often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to
be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level.
-
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to
you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization
would use its own email, its own domain and website? Wouldn't they want to
promote that?
-
What are they promoting? No one promotes "world
peace" or "use of the internet" by handing out millions to random strangers.
And if they are promoting a product, then
this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it,
outside of the email you just received.
-
Pay a fee to collect the prize: Nope, it is illegal
for free sweepstakes and promotions to charge you ANYTHING! Of course, in a
scam, that is the whole point: to get you to send money to the scammer.
It is a typical scam promotion sweepstakes winning notification. Also
see these pages:
From: VOLKSWAGEN AUTOMOBILES
Date: 03/10/07 18:21:36
Subject: VOLKSWAGEN AUTOMOBILE(WINNING NOTIFICATION)
THE LOTTERY DEPARTMENT
Volkswagen Automobiles
22 Garden Close, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 2YP, London . United Kingdom .
www.volkswagen.co.uk .
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of
£500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) and a brand new
volkswagen
Car,From the International online programs held on the 4TH of
February 2007 in London the United Kingdom . The selection process was
carried out through a random selection in our
computerized Email selection
system (E.S.S.) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from
all the continents of the world.
Contact him with your secret pin code SECRET PIN CODE: X7PWYZ2007.
and your reference number VM12052007/21. You are also advised to provide him with the under listed information as soon as possible:
==========================
Mr. Allen Roger.
E-mail: claimsverificationdepartment1@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: +447011133737
Time to call (10am to 5pm London time) ==========================
Claims Requirements:
1.Name in full:
2.Address/Present Country:
3.Sex/Age:
4.Nationality:
5.Maritual Status:
6. Occupation:
7.Phone/Fax:
8. A scanned copy of your Identity sent via email attachment.
9. Indicate
if you desire cash in replace of your car or your car shipped to you by us.
Yours Truly,
Mrs Rose Hills
(Online Promo Lottery Manager)
