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 "Mr. Vanden MacAlister" at "PEPSI NEW YEAR AWARD" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Mr. Anthonio Roberts" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. Pepsi doesn't run a lottery or give away millions to get people to drink their soda, and they certainly don't need to encourage "internet users as well". Any promotions they do are tied to purchases of their products, signing up on their website, or some other form of loyalty reward; not a random distribution to people who have a pulse or email address.
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 give money away randomly to encourage you to buy their product. That would be pointless and self-defeating.
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery, and almost no legitimate sweepstakes or promotions will 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.
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.
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?
Keep Confidential - Real promotions THRIVE on publicity: that's the purpose of them! They don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy their product. 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!"
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 or a lottery, then this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it, outside of the email you just received. Just giving away money to random people who have an email address wouldn't promote a darn thing! It is a scam!
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:
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:41:27 +0100
From: "Vanden MacAlister" < pepsi.claims08@gmail.com >
Subject: OFFICIAL CLAIMS PROCESSING!! CALL THE DELIVERY DEPARTMENT ON 00447045704502
THE PEPSI COMPANY
PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD
1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf,
London E14 5DY, United Kingdom.
"OFFICIAL" PEPSI CLAIMS PROCESSING.
Dear Winner,
This is to confirm receipt of your mail and to let you know that we have verified all your particulars. All documents have been put in place for you to claim your winning. You have been approved, for the payment of the sum of 1,500, 000.00 Pounds Sterling. Your check has already been issued.
THE PEPSI CONSUMER PROMOTION.
Your email was attached to ticket number (7XBYZ2006) and ballot ticket number BTN:41632006/20). The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 2,900,031 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 ticketnumbers 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 25,000,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world. This Lottery is approved by the European Prize Consumer Award Promotion 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. This promotion, is to reward our esteemed customers. In an event, where you have never purchased any of our numerous product, we hope that after this you will begin to patronize of products, as the are available world wide.
To file claim, for your 1,500,000.00 Pounds Sterling (One Million, Five hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling) prize winning. You are hereby requested to contact the delivery department on the email and telephone number below.
You can reach the delivery Dept at:
Universal Express Delivery Service.
Contact Person: Mr. Anthonio Roberts
Email: univex.delivery@yahoo.co.uk
Phone: +44 704 5704 502
Fax: +44 700 6044 246
NOTE:
You are to contact them with the following information within the next 24hours;
1. Full name
2. Address where you would want the parcel delivered to.
3. Telephone Number/Fax Number.
We look forward to your prompt response, should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us as soon as you possibly can.
My contact telephone numbers are given below:
+44 703 590 2804
+44 703 590 2773
The beneficiary would be responsible for the cost of endorsemnt and legalization of his/her winning documents to enable this agency make alternative arrangements for transfer of your winnings with a cashiers certified cheque.
You are to inquire from them, what it will cost to have your check delivered to you.
Once again, congratulations on behalf of myself and the entire officials of the PEPSI ONLINE PROMO.
Regards.
Mr. Vanden MacAlister
Pepsi Payout Officer.
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