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 "William Van Dijck" at "ADVOCATEN AND PROCUREN, Bussels, Belgium" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Mr:Peter Klaes" 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 "ADVOCATEN AND PROCUREN, Bussels, Belgium".
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: wilvandijck@lawyer.com
To: Paris Hilton
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:02:36 -0500
Subject: BARR: WILLIAM VAN DIJCK:REQUIREMENT TO SECURE/TRANSFER YOUR FUNDADV: WILLIAM VAN DIJCK
ADVOCATEN AND PROCUREN
Avenue de Tervuerev 61, 1190 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: 0032-488-664-733 Fax: 0032-488-392-140
E-mail: wilvandijck@lawyer.com
E-mail: willvandijck@email.com
REF: PG/453/212/006
REQUIREMENT
This Chambers hereby acknowledges the receipt of your email, we congratulate you on your winnings; we wish to notify you that we are willing to represent and guide you through the claim process of your winning and also assist you to set a non resident Bank account here in Belgium where your winning sum will be credited for subsequent Transfer to your resident account in your country.
To enable us accomplish this, your winnings has to be Notarize in the court of justice here in Belgium and once we secure all the documentation relating to this as well as the official Notary receipt from the public court, the head of our firm will proceed to the lottery agency to endorse the official release order of your winning, Once this is completed we will then forward the necessary documentation as well the official Notary receipt from the public court to the paying bank to enable the bank effect the remittance of your winning to your domiciliary account amicably.
To allow this office proceed with the Notarization of your winnings, we request that you forward with urgency the following listed below;
(1) An Identification proof (I.E, A VALID I.D)
(2) A copy of your completed claim form(3) The consultation form must be, duly filled, signed and send back via fax, as a power of attorney.
Be informed that the consultation will cost you Four Thousand Five Hundred euros (€4.500), this fee belong to this law firm and should be paid after acknowledgment of your winning sum in your nominated bank account.
The Legalizations/ Notarization of your winning documents in the high court will cost you Nine Hundred and Twenty Five euros (€925), you are expected to pay this fee to the court up front to enable us obtain the notary receipt.
Be also aware that we do not have access to your winning sum and as such legalizations / notarization fee cannot therefore be deducted from your winnings. In other for this firm to be able to obtain the notary receipt that the authorities demands before they can allow us to sign the release document of your prize, legalizations / notarization fee must be paid promptly to allow us serve and represent you fully in the claiming of your lottery-winning sum. You are to pay the money through our financial department.
NOTE: That our receiver's Bank Account details where you are expected to make the part payment for our Consultation /Notarization fee into will be provided for you immediately in the next page/mail.
Be informed that immediately we are through with the notarization process, you will be required to provide the details of your Bank Account coordinate for the remittance of your winning sum as we do not wish the paying bank to hold on to your fund longer than necessary.NOTE: THAT THE LEGALIZATION/NOTARIZATION FEE IS NOT LOTTERY FEE, IT DOES NOT GO TO THE LOTTERY AGENCY, LOTTERY AGENCY DOES NOT DEMANDS ANY FEE FOR CLAIMS, THE PURPOSE OF SENDING THIS MONEY UPFRONT IS TO OBTAIN A NOTARY RECEIPT FROM HIGH COURT.
Yours sincerely,
BARR. William Van Dijck(ASSOCIATE BARRISTER TO MR.VINCENT VAN LEONARD ADVOCATENKANTOOR)
This communication is confidential to Barr. William Van Dijck and is intended solely for the use of the individual or organization to which it is addressed. It may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please notify the originator immediately. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not use, copy, alter, or disclose the contents of this message. All information or opinions expressed in this message and/or any attachments are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Barr. William Van Dijck, Barr. William Van Dijck accepts no responsibility for loss or damage arising from its use.
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From: euromiagen008@live.be
To: Paris Hilton
Subject: (ATTORNEY INFO)Contact the attorney(ASAP)
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 14:50:04 +0200ATTN:Winner,
ONLY ALTERNATIVE IF YOU CAN NOT COME IN PERSON
Sequel to your email, We wish to inform you that we have appointed an advocate to represent you in signing the release document, alternatively due to your inability to come to Belgium, and also help to secure a non resident account on your behalf where your bond worth the sum of (ONE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) will be deposited before the final transfer to your private bank account in your country, and also to help you sign the release document to your claim and receive the award certificate on your behalf.
And only a registered attorney in Belgium can represent you because the authority demands the notarization of every lottery winning in the high court before the authorization for the remittance of the winning sum to the account of the winner can be approved.
To validate your application for the release and transfer of your winning sum, the Board of Management have therefore appointed an Attorney that is familiar with this procedure here in Belgium to perform the notary of your claim in the court as required by the Belgium authority, this will also help to expedite your claim procedure and facilitate the onward remittance of your winning sum to your nominated account without delay.
Please be aware that Euromillions Lottery Agency will not be responsible for any fee or charges of the attorney, as a result of your inability to fulfil the appointment schedule for you, prior to the rules and regulations of the lottery coordinator, as we do not have access to your fund until the release document has been signed by the claimant's attorney and endorsed by the Payment Director.
No client has access to the fund unless the release document has been signed by the beneficiary and endorsed by this Agency.
You are therefore advised to contact your advocate for further instruction pertaining to the notarizing of your winning and instruction pertaining to your undersigned payment mode.Note, you are therefore advice to send your email to the both email address given to you to contact the attorney to avoid delay of response
Adv. William Van Dijck,
BARR.WILLIAM VAN DIJCKwilvandijck@lawyer.com
willvandijck@email.comTEL: 0032-488-664-733 or 01132-488-664-733
FAX: 0032-488-392-140
please contact the lawyer as soon as possible to avoid any delay. BARR. WILLIAM VAN DIJCK is familiar to this program and only charge for legalization and notarization of your winning documents part payments and that is why we recommend them.Note. You are to send your tell/fax number to the attorney in order for then to contact you for further explanation
Best regards,
Mr:Peter Klaes.
(PAYMENT DIRECTOR)
NB:
Note that the form B6 will be given to you or your attorney immediately after signing the release document and the certificate of award will be awarded to you and then the form B6 where you will stipulate your prefer mode of payment which eventually your fund will be deposited in any of the bank here for onward transfer of your fund to your nominated bank account in your country. The most important and essential part of the lottery is the signing of the release document which the organizer demanded before any payment must be made to any body or winner's. All these are laid down procedures that we must follow. You are advice to contact the legal registered attorney in Belgium that we have provided you with the info above don't forget to send the attorney your tell/fax number
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.