Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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What do you suppose the odds are of Coca Cola working together with a tobacco company to randomly give away huge amounts of money to people based on their email address? As if Coke needs more bad public relations! If that sounds even remotely plausible to you, you must get scammed every day. It's just a fraud.
This is 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.
It is also very similar to the scam on this page.
There are many signs that this is a fraud, 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 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".
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? Did you notice that NONE of the email address they use are @cocacola.com? Wouldn't you think that odd?
What are they promoting? No one promotes "world peace" or "use of the internet" by handing out millions to random strangers. That's just stupid to believe. 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.
And a legitimate lottery certainly would not use free hotmail, yahoo, elitist, or aim email accounts.
Notice the gibberish writing, excessive/incorrect use of CAPITAL letters, lack of decent punctuation and other clues to an obvious fraud that we have highlighted in the letter; keep confidential, selected by a random computer lottery of email addresses, use of free email accounts rather than a domain and website that matches the lottery name, etc.
It is a typical scam sweepstakes winning notification. Also see these pages:
COCA COLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION < cocacolalottery_winnotice2007@yahoo.co.uk > wrote:Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007
Subject: Coca-Cola Lottery Winner's Results Announced
From: "COCA COLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION"
< cocacolalottery_winnotice2007@yahoo.co.uk >
THE COCA COLA NATIONAL LOTTERY
PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD
DEPT COCA COLA AVENUE
STAMFORD BRIDGE LONDON
SW1V 3DW UNITED KINGDOM
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY AFFILIATE TO THE COCA COLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws held on ( Monday, 26th February, 2007 ) by the Coca-Cola Company in conjunction with the British American Tobacco Worldwide Promotion, your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won £ 500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterlings) each on the THE COCA-COLA COMPANY PROMOTION However the results were released today Tuesday, 28th February, 2007 and your email was attached to Ticket Number: (56475600545188) and Serial Numbers: (5368/02)
The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet.
However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy. The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 1,000,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.This Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). This lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to
sensitize the public.
In other to claim your £500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterlings) prize winning, which has been deposited in a designated bank.
However, you will have to fill the form below and send it to the Promotion manager of THE COCA COLA COMPANY for verification and then you will be directed to the bank where a
cheque of £500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterlings) has already been deposited in your favour.
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM:
1. FULL NAMES: ...............................
2. ADDRESS: ...............................
3. SEX: ...............................
4. AGE: ...............................
5. MARITAL STATUS: ...............................
6. OCCUPATION: ...............................
7. E-MAIL ADDRESS: ...............................
8. TELEPHONE NUMBER: ...............................
9. TICKET NUMBER: ...............................
10. SERIAL NUMBER: ...............................
11. AMOUNT WON: ...............................
12. STATE: ...............................
13. COUNTRY: ...............................
14. NEXT OF KIN: ...............................
15. HOW DO YOU FEEL AS A WINNER: ...............................
Please you are advised to complete the form and send it immediately to our Promotion manager through email or fax for prompt collection of your fund from the designated bank.
(CONTACT PROMOTION MANAGER)
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:
Overseas Claims Unit
United Kingdom Lottery Fiduciary
Mr. Davison Fairbanks
Email: coca_cola_lottery_promo@yahoo.com.hk
Tel: +44 701 113 2339
Tel: +44 702 406 5632
Fax: +44 870 471 5243
You are to keep all lotto information away from the general public especially your ticket number and ballot number. (This is important as a case of double claims will not be entertained).
*Staff of Coca-Cola and the British American Tobacco Company are not to partake in this Lottery. Accept my hearty congratulations once again!
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Maris Walters
2007 Lottery Co-ordinator
Here is another variation of the same scam:
From: < cokeinfo@bellsouth.net >
Reply-To: cocacola_winnings_agent02@yahoo.co.uk
To: < cocacolapromo@info.com >
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!Your Email Has Won £1000,000.00 In The CocaCola 2007 Promotion
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 16:50:26 -0500
THE COCA COLA COMPANY
PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD
DEPT:COCA COLA AVENUE
STAMFORD BRIDGE LONDON.
SW1V 3DW UNITED KINGDOM
THE COCA COLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws held on (10th March,2007) by Coca-Cola in conjunction with the British American Tobacco Worldwide Promotion. Your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won £1,000,000.00 {One Million Great Britain Pounds} each in the THE COCA\COLA COMPANY 2007 NEW YEAR PROMO.However the results were released today 18th March, 2007 and your email was attached to ticket number (7PWYZ2007) and ballot number (BT:12052007/20) The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031,643 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet.
However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy. The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) .
To begin the claim processing of your prize you are to contact the fiduciary agent as stated below:
Mr john williams
22 Garden Close, Stamford,
Lincs,PE9 2YP,London United Kingdom
Email: cocacola_winnings_agent02@yahoo.co.uk
*Staff of Coca-Cola and the British American Tobacco Company are not to partake in this PROMOTION.
Accept our hearty congratulations once again!
Yours Faithfully,
Management
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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