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 JEN AND KELSEY KOWAL at the "UK LOTTERY" telling you that you've won (without telling you how)? It is a scam.
There are only two legal large lotteries in Britain, the National Lottery and the Monday Lottery, anyway, and they do NOT use email to notify winners. Below is a scam email actually received.
DO NOT reply to any emails you receive that claim you have won a lottery that you did not enter. They are frauds. You will lose your money. There is no "free lunch"; don't be foolish and believe a scam! We can not say it any more plainly: YOU WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL BY ANY LEGITIMATE LOTTERY THAT YOU WON A PRIZE. If you do receive such an email, it IS a fraud, do not reply to it! If you DID reply to one, see this page to find out what happens next!
Other resources:
In the UK, call the hotline at 020 7211 8111 to check or report lottery scams.
There are many other signs that this is a fraud that we have highlighted in the email below, typically including one or more of these:
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". Real lotteries proofread their emails and use people who can write above the 3rd grade level.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use its own email, its 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!
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.
From: "JEN AND KELSEY KOWAL" < jkkowal@shaw.ca >
To:
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 4:02 AM
Subject: REFERENCE NUMBER UK/9420X2/68
We happily announce to you the results of draw of the UK LOTTERY, Online Sweepstakes International program held on 10th of March, 2007. It is yet to be unclaimed and you are getting the FINAL NOTIFICATION as regards this. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 753,437.00 in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of 7,534,370.00 shared amongst the first Ten (10) lucky winners in this category B.
CONTACT THE FIDUCIARY AGENT: MRS JANELL CHARLTON
EMAIL: onlinedraw_promo@yahoo.dk
VERIFICATION FORM:
FULL NAME
WINNING E-MAIL ADDRESS
FULL ADDRESS
SEX
AGE
OCCUPATION
TEL
MOBILE
COUNTRY
Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program. Thank you for being part of our online promotional lottery program.
Yours Truly,
JEN AND KELSEY KOWAL
Co-Coordinator
(Online Promo Programme).
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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