Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
There are affiliate links on this page.
Read our disclosure policy to learn more.
Translate this page to any language by choosing a language in the box below.
Have you received an email from "Christopher Asher Wray" at "the Federal Bureau of Investigation telling you that "This is to officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an investigation with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you legally won" or something similar, and to contact "John White at w.fbi@yandex.com" to collect your winnings?
It is a scam. That should be obviouis: the FBI is not in the business of informing lottery winners. Plus the obvious fact that an email address cannot buy nor win a lottery. By definition, you MUST buy a lottery ticket to be able to win any lottery. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a scammer.
Again, no legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners vian email (see footnote)! The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam!
Below is the example of the fake email scam (the email is the scam, not any persons or companies named in the email) claiming to be from the "The FBI" claiming your email address won a lottery..
Although the most important clue is thatthe FBI would NEVER email you and
no legitimate lottery will ever email a winner, there are many other 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.
"No tickets were sold": You care to explain where the money comes from? Perhaps the lottery money fairy? Why would a lottery give away money to "email address randomly selected by a computer ballot draw system"? This is CLEARLY nonsense: you MUST, repeat MUST buy a ticket to have a chance of winning any lottery!
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. Names are usually in all capital letters for some reason known only to these illiterate criminals. 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. Real lotteries also proofread their emails and look and read more professional.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, Yanex, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use it's own email, it's own domain and website?
Keep Confidential - Real lotteries THRIVE on publicity - they don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy more tickets. 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!"
Email notification: NO REAL LOTTERY SENDS AN EMAIL TO NOTIFY WINNERS. Period. Full-stop. End of story. There mere fact ALONE that you received an email saying you won a lottery is proof that it is a scam.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
-----Original Message-----
From: FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION [mailto:office@webbox240.server-home.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2019 3:37 AM
Subject: ***SPAM*** FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION .
FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
REF: US/28028/8A28/18 ATTN: RECIPIENT
This is to officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an investigation with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you legally won the sum of $800,000.00 USD. from a Lottery Company outside the United States of America. During our investigation we discovered that your e-mail won the money from an Online Balloting System and we have authorized this winning to be paid to you via a Certified Cashier's Check.
Normally, it will take up to 10 business days for an International Check to be cashed by your local banks. We have successfully notified this company on your behalf that funds are to be drawn from a registered bank within the United States of America so as to enable you cash the check instantly without any delay, henceforth the stated amount of $800,000.00 USD. has been deposited with Bank Of America.
We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction to be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have been deposited at Bank Of America you will be required to settle the following bills directly to the Lottery Agent in-charge of this transaction whom is located in Lagos, Nigeria, According to our discoveries, you were required to pay for the following -
Deposit Fee's (Fee's paid by the company for the deposit into an American Bank which is - Bank of America)
Cashier's Check Conversion Fee (Fee for converting the Wire Transfer payment into a Certified Cashier's Check)
The total amount for everything is $270.00 (Two hundred and seventy USD.) We have tried our possible best to indicate that this $270.00 should be deducted from your winning prize but we found out that the funds have already been deposited at Bank Of America and cannot be accessed by anyone except the legal owner (you), the winner; therefore you will be required to pay the required fee's to the Agent in-charge of this transaction via Western Union Money Transfer Or Money Gram.
In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to contact the agent in-charge (JOHN WHITE) via e-mail. Kindly look below to find appropriate contact information:
CONTACT AGENT NAME: JOHN WHITE
E-MAIL ADDRESS: w.fbi@yandex.com
You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:
FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:
You will also be required to request Western Union details on how to send the required $270.00 in order to immediately ship your prize of $800,000.00 USD Certified Cashier's Check drawn from Bank of America, and also include the following Fund Reference Identification : FA3948-914.
This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $270.00 ONLY to AGENT JOHN WHITE via information in which he shall send to you, if you do not receive your winning prize of $800,000.00 we shall be held responsible for the loss and this shall invite a penalty of $15,000 which will be made PAYABLE ONLY to you (The Winner).
Christopher Asher Wray
Director - FBI.
NOTE: In order to ensure rapid response for the Fund won, contact AGENT JOHN WHITE as soon as possible providing the required information needed from you above
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule - and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would used their safegaurds.