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 "Mrs Rose Hills" at "The Lottery Department of Volkswagen Automobiles" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Mr. Allen Roger" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. 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 randomly give away money to encourage you to buy their product. That would be self-defeating.
There are many other signs that this is a fraud that we have highlighted 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 random CapItaLiZAtion and often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level.
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?
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, then this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it, outside of the email you just received.
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:
From: VOLKSWAGEN AUTOMOBILES
Date: 03/10/07 18:21:36
Subject: VOLKSWAGEN AUTOMOBILE(WINNING NOTIFICATION)
THE LOTTERY DEPARTMENT
Volkswagen Automobiles
22 Garden Close, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 2YP, London . United Kingdom .
www.volkswagen.co.uk .This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of £500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) and a brand new volkswagen Car,From the International online programs held on the 4TH of February 2007 in London the United Kingdom . The selection process was carried out through a random selection in our computerized Email selection system (E.S.S.) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.
Contact him with your secret pin code SECRET PIN CODE: X7PWYZ2007.
and your reference number VM12052007/21. You are also advised to provide him with the under listed information as soon as possible:
==========================
Mr. Allen Roger.
E-mail: claimsverificationdepartment1@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: +447011133737
Time to call (10am to 5pm London time) ==========================
Claims Requirements:
1.Name in full:
2.Address/Present Country:
3.Sex/Age:
4.Nationality:
5.Maritual Status:
6. Occupation:
7.Phone/Fax:
8. A scanned copy of your Identity sent vian email attachment.
9. Indicate if you desire cash in replace of your car or your car shipped to you by us.
Yours Truly,
Mrs Rose Hills
(Online Promo Lottery Manager)
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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