Did you know that Yahoo has a lottery? And that they give
away huge amounts of money to people simply for having "an active online email
account"? This is news to Yahoo, too. If you received an email from "Mrs.Sherrell Barber (Zonal Coordinator)" at "THE DESK OF THE CLAIMS DIRECTOR"
telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something
similar, and to contact "HENRY HALE (REMMITANCE DIRECTOR)" (note that
they even misspelled "remittance") to collect your winnings, it is a scam. Yahoo has
never had any lottery (and we're pretty sure they never will). Yahoo
certainly doesn't "collect email addresses" or selects winners "using a
database of email addresses", or "from websites worldwide", or from "our
computer ballot system". Each of those activities would be illegal in many
countries, under existing privacy laws. Not to mention, it simply makes no
sense for Yahoo to simply give away money. Real lotteries take in much
more money than they give away, through ticket sales? Businesses are not
lotteries - customers don't buy or use their products or services on the hope
that the company will run a lottery for its customers. And it's just plain
dumb to believe that!
The scammers may
change the names and details, but it is still a scam! Don't be an complete
imbecile!
Below is the example of the fake lottery scam claiming to
be from the "THE DESK OF THE CLAIMS DIRECTOR".
-
Yahoo does not have or sponsor any lottery.
-
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a
"computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even
Yahoo 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.
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, etc.) -
often not even a Yahoo free account. Don't you think Yahoo would write
from their own corporate address?
-
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.
From: YAHOO INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS <
info@yahoopromo.co.uk >
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 7:16:27 AM
Subject: ATTENTION:WINNER (YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED THE SUM
OF £500,000 GBP)
FROM: THE DESK OF THE CLAIMS DIRECTOR,
YAHOO INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS / PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT,
REF: YAHOO6/315116
BATCH: 825429
Registered Lottery No 220
(Thanks for contributing to our Financial Success)
Attention Winner,
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a
cash prize of £500,000.00 Pounds. This email promotion was held on the 11th of
April 2008 in London United Kingdom. Your e-mail address attached to ticket
number 88373465 with serial number 726, batch number 825429 drew the lucky
numbers
14-22-28-3 which consequently won in the 1st category,
you have therefore beenapproved for a lump sum pay out of £500,000.00 (i.e. five
Hundred Thousand United Kingdom Pounds
Sterling) in cash credited to file REF: YAHOO6/31511.
To file for your claims you are to contact our
REMMITANCE DIRECTOR for further information.
NAME: HENRY HALE (REMMITANCE DIRECTOR)
EMAIL:
r_director@yahoo.com.hk
Tel: +44 7747372589
You are hereby advised to provide our claims department
with the following information: REF Number, Batch number, Winning Email Address.
Thereafter you will directed by your remittance officer on how to claim your
prize.
YAHOO PROMOTION is a free service that does not require
you to register or be a Yahoo registered user before winning. You have received
this message from Yahoo International PROMOTIONS prize dept because you have
visited one of our sponsored sites and have voluntarily given your email address
to receive mails from their sponsors. Your email address was selected along side
ten lucky winners around the world who have there email voluntarily given to
receive mails from various site that we sponsor around the world.
To View Some Of Our Past Lucky Winner Click:
http://img.timeinc.net/TFK/media/news/2006a/060222_lottery_hor.jpg
http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2005/09/23/lottery-winners-inside.jpg
http://www.javoue.com/presse/yahoo_javoue.jpg
Mrs.Sherrell Barber (Zonal Coordinator)
YAHOO! PROMOTIONS
