Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Below are reports from consumer of various scams. We haven't been able to validate them, so we present them unedited:
In general, keep in mind that the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery will ever email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud. Are clues:
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.
See these pages:
Others:
You have won our annual lottery price. They kept calling your cell# They even guide you to their site stating that your number had won their grand price.
1) www.huanjii.com（環球娛樂集團）、
2) www.huangjar.com（皇家娛樂集團）、
3) www.yartar.com（亞泰娛樂集團）。
4) www.JimZuan,com (金鑽娛樂集團)
All 4 of them using same address in hongkong 香港灣仔軒尼詩道28號
I am sick and tired of them socilisting my cell# hence would like your everybody to watchout for them. They call and stated that you had won, a international licenced lawyer will contact you even provide you the link of the law firm to you. Any they stated that they need all your information so that when the lawyer call you they can telly /match your information given by yourself.
Please be ware.
You have won our annual lottery price. They kept calling your cell# They even guide you to their site stating that your number had won their grand price.
1) www.huanjii.com（環球娛樂集團）、
2) www.huangjar.com（皇家娛樂集團）、
3) www.yartar.com（亞泰娛樂集團）。
4) www.JimZuan,com (金鑽娛樂集團)
All 4 of them using same address in hongkong 香港灣仔軒尼詩道28號
I am sick and tired of them socilisting my cell# hence would like your everybody to watchout for them. They call and stated that you had won, a international licenced lawyer will contact you even provide you the link of the law firm to you. Any they stated that they need all your information so that when the lawyer call you they can telly /match your information given by yourself.
Please be ware.
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.