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. Carol Smith" at "Australian Lotto Inc" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Dr. Morgan Windsor III" 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 "Australian Lotto Inc".
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.
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.
You hereby have been approved a lump sum of US800,000.00 (DOLLARS) in cash credit file ref Ref: 132/756/4007, from the total cash prize of US$200,000,000.00(DOLLARS) shared amongst eight lucky winners in this category. Also Joint with the winning is a complementary Issue of the new 2006 BMW 760 4DR LIMITED EDITION. AUSTRALIAN LOTTO INC.
AUSTRALIAN LOTTO INC, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to World Wide Web, we only select eight people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying,we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.
PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
You are to contact your Claims Agent on or before your date of Claim, Winners Shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Centre. Australian Lotto prize must be claimed no later than 15 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.
These are your identification numbers:
Ref:132/756/4007
Batch:538901527-BB67
Winning no: 11 13 26 34 44 48
These numbers fall within the London agent's Location file, you are requested to contact our Claims Department using the contact information below for more information on how you can claim your prize money, send your winning identification numbers to your claims agent with the below email address:
CLAIMS DEPARTMENT CONTACT INFO;
best regards,
DR. MORGAN WINDSOR III,
(LONDON Claims Agent)
APPROVED
CONTACT PERSON:........DR. MORGAN WINDSOR III.
E-mail:dr_morgan_windsor2000@yahoo.com TELEPHONE:+447-031-966-223
Past winners round the world full of excitment
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You are therefore advised to send the following information to the claims department to facilitate the verification on your winning.
1. Full name..............
2. Country................
3. Contact Address........
4. Telephone Number.......
5. Marital Status.........
6. Occupation.............
7. Age....................
Congratulations!! once again.
Yours in service,
MRS CAROL SMITH.
(Public Relations Officer)
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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