Lottery scam quick guide: it's a scam if...

  • you win any lottery where you didn't buy a ticket! It's really that easy! It's not just too good to be true: it's bait in a trap!
  • you receive a generous grant out of the blue. Sadly (but not surprisingly) there aren't any benevolent people regularly throwing around millions of pounds/dollars/euros to randomly chosen people. This is just the lottery scam without the ticket.
  • they send you partial payment in the form of a cheque, money order, or direct bank transfer and want you to pay them fees out of that money. They're playing you for a sucker: cheques are frequently forged, and direct transfers made by compromising some poor schmuck's online banking service. You'll wind up a victim of fraud, or a party to it.
  • they want you to send them any money of any sort for any reason. They might try to say there are courier fees or taxes to cover. They're lying. Call their bluff and tell them to take the fees out themselves -- they'll never ever agree, because they can't defraud you unless money is making the reverse trip from you to them somehow.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

CONGRATULATIONS!!!YOUR EMAIL ID HAS WON 500.000:00 USD.

From: microsoft luckyday <microsoftx_luckyday@pobox.sk>
Date: 09-Apr-2006 04:53
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!YOUR EMAIL ID HAS WON 500.000:00 USD.
To: undisclosed-recipients

CONGRATULATIONS!!!YOUR EMAIL ID HAS WON 500.000:00 USD.

MICROSOFT/LUCKYDAY EMAIL PROMOTION INTERNATIONAL
FROM:INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD.
PROMOTING INTERNET USAGE OVER THE GLOBE
(MICROSOFT ENCOURAGE GLOBALIZATION)

Dear Sir / Madam,

We are happy to inform you that you have emerged a winner under the
second Category,This is part of our promotional draws. The draws are
being officially announced today 8th of April 2006. Participants were
selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 2,500,000 email
addresses of individuals and companies from Africa, America,
Asia,Australia,Europe, Middle East, and Oceania as part of our
International Promotions Program.

Your e-mail address, attached to ticket number 50941465206-529, with
serial number 5772-54 drew the lucky numbers 3-4-17-28-35-44 and
consequently won in the Second Category.
You have therefore been awarded a lump sum pay out of 500.000.00 USD
(FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS), which is the winning payout for
Category B winners. This is from the total prize money from 2,000,000
shared among the 2 winners in this category .

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Your fund is now deposited with the paying Bank.In your best interest
to aviod mix up of numbers and names of any kind, we request that you
keep the entire details of your award strictly confidential until the
process of transferring your won prize has been completed, and your
funds remitted to your account.

To file for your claim,please contact the fiduciary agent.

Mr Phelp Grant Mrs Cheryl Klein Huis
NETPOINT CLAIM MANAGEMENT SERVICES.
(Claims undewriter, Claims assessor,Claims adjustor,claim negotiator)
TEL/ 0031-6-2203-4830.
FAX/ 0031-84-712-7437.
Email: netpointagency01@netscape.net

You are advised to contact the agents by email
N.B: Remember to quote these numbers in your correspondence with your
claims agent.
REFERENCE NUMBER: LSLUK/2031/8161/04,BATCH NUMBER: 14/011/IPD
Congratulations once again from all our staff.

Sincerely Yours,

Iries Van Guus
Lottery Coordinator.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep. There's nothing like winning a half a million from something you have never participated in. So this is a scam. What do you think they are trying to achieve?

Spotter said...

Most lottery scams are "advance fee fraud". They promise you lots of money, but you have to pay them something up front to get it. After you pay them, they break their promise. I've also heard of cases where you have to pay some kind of fee up front, and then you are given counterfiet cash. Lastly, it's possible that they are just fishing for personal details: they could ask you to fill out a "claim form" with sufficient detail that they could engage in identity theft.