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Lottery Scams: UK UNIVERSAL LOTTERY INC

Lottery Scam Email:
UK UNIVERSAL LOTTERY INC
"Mrs. Grace. G. Briggs", "Mr. Rev.(Fr.)Connilus R.Chamberlin"

Have you received an email from "Mrs. Grace. G. Briggs" at "UK UNIVERSAL LOTTERY INC" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Mr. Rev.(Fr.)Connilus R.Chamberlin" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. 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 "UK UNIVERSAL LOTTERY INC".

Notice that all of the "signatures", even "Mrs. Grace. G. Briggs", are the same, "Carl A. Harrison". 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:

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. 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.). 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.

Actual scam email (One example - the scammers constantly change names, dates and addresses!):

                                            UK UNIVERSAL LOTTERY INC.
                                                   THE LOTTERY HOUSE

VICTORIA EMBANKMENT

WESTMINSTER P.O BOX

35451 182 LONDON

SW1A 2JL
UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
Date: 28th December, 2007.

Ref: SGIL: 763276/03
Batch: 6858/UK

Dear Winner No: 7.

   BONUS

With immense pleasure, we wish to notify you that you have emerged today, 28th December 2007, one of the recipients of   UK Universal Email Promotion Prize. Your email address attached to ticket number 023-56678230954, drew the lucky numbers 06-09-11-33-36-49-29, batch number 6858/UK and consequently won you the Email Promotion Award in the 3RD category. You have therefore been approved of a lump sum pay of �1,500, 000, and 00 (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling) which has been credited to file REF NO. SGIL/763276/03. This is from the total prize money of �32,000,000.00 which is to be shared among the forty International winners in categories

C with serial number: IL/FLW/12-C033721192. All participants in this promotional program were selected randomly through a computer balloting system involving 85,000.000 individual email addresses drawn online.

Your e-mail address was picked by the automated computer ballot system via random sampling technique. This eventually qualified you for the promo award. This promotional program takes place annually, and is promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities (such as Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation, etc.) and the support of European / African corporate companies and organizations to encourage the use of Internet.

Upon contacting our European fiduciary agent, Rev. (Fr) Collinus R.Chamberlin, with the required details below, the payment of your �1.500, 000.00 will be affected:

Mr. Rev.(Fr.)Connilus R.Chamberlin (International Claims Agent,

UK Universal Lottery Fiduciary)

Tel/Fax:  +447045721229

Email: ficontroller@hotmail.com

1. Full Name:

2. Date of Birth:

3. Sex:

4. Marital Status:

5. Contact Address:.

6. Country & Religion:

7. Current Location:

8. Telephone Number:

9. Occupation:

10. Brief Description of Company/Individual:

11. Winning E-mail Address:

12. Winning Number:

13. Ref Number:

14. Batch Number:

15. Amount Won:

16. In a brief explanation, how do you intend to use your won prize in improving your standard of living?

Note that our paying bank is only authorized to make Payment upon satisfactory Verification and Report by our fiduciary agent. Also, according to our Promotion Code of Conduct, Section 37.2, page 10, paragraph 5, prize will be cancelled and withdrawn if not claimed on or before 30 days, from the date of this notification, and thereafter all funds will be returned to the UK Ministry of Finance as unclaimed.

As a security measure to avoid fraudulent claims, you are requested to keep your Award notification letter confidential until your claim has been processed and your fund transferred to your designated bank account.

Finally, always quote your reference number in all your correspondence and should there be any change in your contact addresses, do notify our fiduciary agent immediately.

Congratulations once again from all our staff

Thanks,

Mrs. Grace. G. Briggs. (Lottery Coordinator)

Online coordinator for THE UNIVERSAL LOTTERY.

Mrs. Grace. G. Briggs

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