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, November 05, 2006

COCA'COLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: mrsrshlls@aol.com <mrsrshlls@aol.com>
Date: 05-Nov-2006 15:08
Subject: COCA'COLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
To: undisclosed-recipients


THE COCA'COLA COMPANY
PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD
DEPTCOCA'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 the (1st November, 2006) by Coca-Cola in
onjunction with the British American Tobacco Worldwide Promotion, your
email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won £1,000,000.00 each on the
THE COCA'COLA COMPANY PROMOTION

However the results were released on the (4th November 2006) and your
email was attached to ticket number (7PWYZ2006) and ballot number (BT:
12052006/20) 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
250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.

This Promotion is approved by the British Gaming Board and also
licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators
(IAGR).This Promotion is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to
sensitize the public.

In other to claim your £1,000,000.00 prize winning, which has been
deposited in a designated bank? However, you will have to fill the
form below and send it to the BANK MANAGER OF ANGLO IRISH BANK LONDON
for verification and then you will be directed On how you will have
your winning cheque of £1,000,000.00 Pounds.

NAME:..........................................
AGE:.............................................
SEX:..............................................
ADDRESS:.....................................
EMAIL:..........................................
TICKET NUMBER:..........................
BALLOT NUMBER:.........................
PHONE:........................................
OCCUPATION:..............................
COMPANY:..................................
COUNTRY:..................................

Please you are advised to complete the form and send it immediately
to the BANK MANAGER OF ANGLO IRISH BANK LONDON through email or fax
for prompt collection of your fund from the designated bank.

(CONTACT ANGLO IRISH BANK LONDON)

Name: Dr. Peter Markson.
Phone: (+44) 7011-128-820 or (+44) 7011-131-123
Fax: (00-44) 8709-741-653
E-mail: angloirishbank_info15@yahoo.co.uk

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 Promotion.

Accept my hearty congratulations once again!

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Rose Hills
________________________________
Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and
security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from
across the web, free AOL Mail and more.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hate f****** scams!! i can't stand that sh*t!! whatever...

Anonymous said...

I received this email too, is this really fake ?

Spotter said...

Fake? No, it's not fake: it's a perfectly real SCAM. They tell you that you've won X million dollars, and they are ready to send it to you, but you need to pay certain "courier fees" or whatever other kind of fees up front. This is called "Advance Fee Fraud". The "Fraud" part is there because there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They just keep asking you for more and more fees, sucking money out of you for as long as you are willing to give out. See this site for further evidence.

Unknown said...

I have continued to receive this scam, its bull sh*t, dont fall atrap

Maxer said...

what actually gonna happen if i filled this forms with all my details leaving the important bits like phone no. and account no.?..

Spotter said...

I don't know for sure, but the usual way this scam works is that they try to persuade you that you need to send them money in order to collect your prize. Leaving your contact details with them tells them that you are a good target for scamming, so expect to hear back from them. And don't fall for any tricks: do NOT send any money -- not even if they mail you a check.

Anonymous said...

This is our Coca-cola Headquarter Official E-mail ID. For any queries or assistant for your Award Prize. Kindly contact us on: cokebot.uk@outlook.com

Spotter said...

Nice try, scamming scumbag. Anything associated with an outlook.com email address is NOT official Coca-Cola anything. The official domain name of the Coca-Cola Company is coca-colacompany.com, and they have numerous disclaimers about Internet-based scams on their rumours and facts page, including disclaimers about fake lotteries (see point #5).