|
Recommended:
books
Recommended
AV product:
| |
Yahoo Lottery Scam Email:
Yahoo! Mail Lottery
"Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes."
"Dr. Lance Hoppes", "Mr. Edgar Walters or George Bala(Secretary)"
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 with Yahoo! Mail"? This is news to Yahoo, too. If you received an email from "Dr. Lance Hoppes" at "Yahoo! Mail Lottery"
telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something
similar, and to contact "Mr. Edgar Walters or George Bala(Secretary)" 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 "Yahoo! Mail Lottery".
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate
lottery will ever email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud.
We have
highlighted some of these in the email below, not the least
of which are:
-
Yahoo does not have or sponsor any lottery. Nor does
"Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes.". That is nonsense.
-
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.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
Actual scam email (One example - the scammers constantly change
names, dates and addresses!):
Yahoo! Mail <webmailinfo@jguihhh.com>
wrote:
From: "Yahoo! Mail" <webmailinfo@jguihhh.com>
Subject: Yahoo! Mail Congratulates You
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:33:49 +0100
Yahoo! Mail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly
selected as the one of 5 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from
us.We are happy to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five Hundred
Thousand Great Britian Pounds Sterling (500,000)for the month of Febuary, 2008
in the Yahoo Mail! promotion which is organized by yahoo.com every month.
This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by a conglomorate of some multinational
companies as part of their social responsibility to the citizens in the
commmunities where they have operational base. Further more your details(e-mail
address) falls within our British representative office in United Kingdom , as
indicated in your play coupon and your prize of 500,000 will be released to you
from this regional branch office in UK.
We hope with part of your prize, you will participate in our end of year high
stakes for US$15 Million international draw.
HOW TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
These are your identification numbers:
Batch number.......................Lwh 09445
Lotto number........................Lwh09446
Winning number...................Lwh09447
To begin your claims, kindly contact our claims agent at this email address:
edclaimsofficebox@googlemail.com
His name is Mr. Edgar Walters
George Bala(Secretary)
+447045771479
You are required to forward him the following details:
1.FULL NAME
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
3.PRESENT ADDRESS
4.SEX
5.DATE OF BIRTH
6.AGE
7.OCCUPATION
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER
9.FAX NUMBER(IF ANY)
10.MARITAL STATUS
11.WINNING NUMBER,BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER.
12 THE MONTH YOU WON
As soon as you contact him, he will advise you on what to do in order to get
your prize money.
Congratulations once more!!
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Lance Hoppes
PROMO CO-ORDINATOR.
Yahoo! Lottery is a free service that does not require you to register or be a
Yahoo! registered user before winning.
Note: Do not reply this mail: Contact your claims agent for processing of
payment as indicated in your winning notification. Thank You
Names of Scam / Fake / Fraud Lottery
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery
scams companies
***
|
