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.
Did you receive an email from "Mr.Walter Cook" at "Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incorporation" telling you that "Your e-mail address attached to ticket number" or something similar, won the Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incorporation lottery and to contact "YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE" to collect your winnings? Were you even aware that Yahoo has a lottery, together with Microsoft? Have you heard of "Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incorporation"? And that they give away huge amounts of money to people simply for having "an active online email account"? This is news to Yahoo and Microsoft; especially since they are direct competitors.
Neither Yahoo nor Microsoft have never had any lottery (and we're pretty sure they never will). They certainly would not do ANYTHING together. Neither Microsoft nor Yahoo "collects email addresses" or selects winners "using a database of email addresses", or "from websites worldwide", or from "our computer ballot system". Each of those activities would be illegal in many countries, under existing privacy laws. Not to mention, it simply makes no sense for Yahoo to simply give away money. Real lotteries take in much more money than they give away, through ticket sales? Businesses are not lotteries - customers don't buy or use their products or services on the hope that the company will run a lottery for its customers. And it's just plain dumb to believe that!
The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam! Don't be an complete imbecile!
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 "Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incorporation".
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:
Yahoo does not have or sponsor any lottery.
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Yahoo 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. 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.) - often not even a Yahoo free account. Don't you think Yahoo would write from their own corporate address?
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: info@yahoo.com
--
Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incorporation
Baley House, Har Road Sutton,
Greater London SM1 4te
United Kingdom .
Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of One Million Great Britain Pound Sterling?s(£1,000.000.00)for the Month of March
2008 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE.
YAHOO/MSN & MICROSOFT WINDOWS,collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.
You are to contact the events manager
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.....................YM 09102XM Reff number.......................YM 35447XM Winning number...................ERFM0988
However you will have to fill and submit this form to the events manager.
1. Full name..............
2. Contact Address........
3. Age....................
4. Telephone Number.......
5. Sex....................
6. Occupation:............
7. State..................
8. Country................
9. Nationality............
(CONTACT EVENTS MANAGER)
Name: Mr.Walter Cook
Tel: +44 704-579-1952
E-mail: payoutoffice1@yahoo.com.hk
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
***