Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
There are affiliate links on this page.
Read our disclosure policy to learn more.
Translate this page to any language by choosing a language in the box below.
Did you receive an email from the "Heritage Lottery Fund" claiming your email address won? Don't go on a spending spree; it is just another obvious scam, as no lottery notifies its winners, the scam claims you won simply because you have an email address!
Don't be fooled: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system", no one wins a lottery simply by having an email address and NO legitimate lottery that will notify you by email; especially when you didn't buy a ticket from them!
If you still think this might be legit, see the highlighted passages in the email below, that draw attention to the other, additional signs of a scam; such as keep confidential, selected by a random computer lottery of email addresses, no website of their own, use of free hotmail/yahoo email accounts, numerous misspellings, poor grammar and punctuation, etc.
Notice that they claim to be in the United Kingdom, yet they have a free Yahoo email address in Hong Kong!
Other useful pages:
From: HERITAGE LOTTERY PROMO < andychamberz@bellsouth.net >
Reply-To: claim_officer@sify.com
To: < winning_spree1@yahoo.co.uk >
Subject: THIS EMAIL ADDRESS DREW THE WINNING NUMBERS....
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 8:54:03 -0500
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUNDS PROMOTIONS
7 Holbein Place, London, SW1W 8NR United Kingdom
FROM: THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS,
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT,
REF: HLF/66-CAW662006
Dear Winner,We are pleased to announce you as one of the 6 lucky winners in the HERITAGE LOTTERY FUNDS draw held on the 3rd of January,2007. All 6 winning addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 40,000 international emails. Your email address emerged alongside 5 others as a 3rd category winner in this month's draw. Consequently, you have therefore been approved for a total pay out of £1,500,000 Pounds( one million five hundred thousand pounds) only. The following particulars are attached to your lottery payment order:
(i) Winning numbers: 35, 19, 20, 31, 18, 41
(ii) Email ticket number: 205-0-4051
(iii) Lottery batch number: 311-4GD
(iv) File Ref. number: HLF/66-CAW662006
Please contact the underlisted claims officer
Mr. Edward Pinto,
7 Holbein Place, London, SW1W 8NR United Kingdom
Email: claim_officer@sify.com
As soon as possible for the immediate release of your winnings with the requested information so that we can expedite the processing of your claims.
NAME:________________________________________________
COUNTRY:_____________________________________________
ADDRESS:_____________________________________________
CITY:____________________
STATE/PROV:_________________
SEX:____________________
OCCUPATION:_________________
ZIP/POSTAL:__________________________________________
PHONE:________________
FAX:___________________________
EMAIL: ______________________________________________
BATCH/ REFERENCE NUMBER: ____________________________
AGE:_________________________________________________
For a speedy processing of your claims, please include the following information in your mail to your claims officer
1. Winning numbers
2. Email ticket number
3. Lottery batch number
4. File Ref. number
Congratulations once again from all members and staff of this program.
Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery programs.
Sincerely,
MRS HELEN PALMER
THE DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS,
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
***