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 Caroline Andrews" at the "United Kingdom National Lottery" telling you that you won the a prize and to contact "Barrister Ashley Richard"? 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:
Also
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.
Courier / delivery charges are high due to Hardcover insurance Policy - If you respond to them, you will usually receive an email telling you you must pay delivery charges. First, as we mentioned earlier, no winner would ever have to pay delivery charges in a real lottery, sweepstakes or promotion. Secondly, there is no such thing as "hardcover insurance policies" . Go search in Google and see if you can find a definition for it!
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
From: "UK National Lottery" < info@uknationallottery.co.uk >
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 1:51 PM
Subject: PRIZE WINNER!!!
United Kingdom National Lottery,
2 Lansdowne Row,
Berkeley Square,
London, W1J 6H,
United Kingdom.Dear Email User, United Kingdom National Lottery, We happily announce to you the Draw (#942) of the BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY, online British National Lottery program held on 4th January 2008.Your e-mail address attached to Ticket Number:8 603775966738 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the Winning numbers:1,3,8,12,14,18,23 which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e match 3 plus bonus. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £500,000.00 (Five hundred thousand Great British pound Sterling) in cash credited to your file. This is from a total cash prize of £20,350,000.00,shared amongst the Winners with different amount won in this category i.e Match 3 plus bonus.
All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. Please contact our Fiduciary Agent for VALIDATION.
Barrister Ashley Richard. Email: fiduciary_ukldept07@hotmail.com
Mrs Caroline Andrews UK ONLINE COORDINATOR British( UK ) National Lottery, OCEANIC B.T COMPANY, UNITED KINGDOM
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Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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