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 "Roben Gween" at "ACCULOTTO ONLINE INTERNATIONAL E-MAIL LOTTERY" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Dr Allan Smith" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. And don't get too excited if the names are different; the scammers make many versions of this scam! See the initial email and follow-up reply from the scammers below.
It is actually a very simple scam. They claim you won a promotion, which is giving away millions of dollars based on a randomly selected email address. The scam is obvious: it's simply preposterous to think that any company would randomly give away money to encourage you to buy their product. That would be self-defeating.
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery, and almost no legitimate sweepstakes or promotions will 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.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use its own email, its own domain and website? Wouldn't they want to promote that?
Keep Confidential - Real promotions THRIVE on publicity: that's the purpose of them! They don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy their product. 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!"
What are they promoting? No one promotes "world peace" or "use of the internet" by handing out millions to random strangers. And if they are promoting a product, then this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it, outside of the email you just received.
Pay a fee to collect the prize: Nope, it is illegal for free sweepstakes and promotions to charge you ANYTHING! Of course, in a scam, that is the whole point: to get you to send money to the scammer.
It is a typical scam promotion sweepstakes winning notification. Also see these pages:
CONGRATULATIONS !!YOUR EMAIL WON OUR LOTTERY
Dear Winner,
We happily announce to you the draw (#103) of the ACCULOTTO ONLINE INTERNATIONAL E-MAIL LOTTERY held on 17 Feb. 2007. You are among the hundred people who were selected this year to claim the sum of $1.100,00(one million one hundred thousand dollars). Your e-mail address with serial number: 56475600545 188.You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of $1.100,00(one million one hundred thousand dollars) in cash credited to file KT U/9023118308/03.
NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A TICKET LOTTERY AND THE e-mails addresses of all participants for the online version were selected randomly from World WideWeb sites, Email directories, the email key index server, online guest books, member directories and a host of other sources where both newly registered and old emails through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online.! This promotion takes place yearly. Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our African booklet representative office in Africa In view of this, $1.100,00(one million one hundred thousand dollars) will be released to you by any of our payment offices in Africa.
Our agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned!!!
To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent through the e-mail below with the following information:
Dr Allan Smith
Email: agent_allan_smith@yahoo.com.mx
1.Name
2.Occupation
3.Age
4.Sex
5.Nationality
6.Phone Number
7.Contact Address Or Postal Address
Dr Allan Smith
Email: agent_allan_smith@yahoo.com.mx
CONGRATULATION!!
Roben Gween (Mr.)
ACCULOTTO ONLINE INTERNATIONAL E-MAIL LOTTERY
1-3 Leinster Gardens, London W2 6DP London
FROM: THE PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR
(PAYMENT AND DESPATCH DEPT.)
Dear Susan Doe,
How are you today?
My name is Mr Allan Smith, (operations manager of Dispatch and payment Department) of the ACCULOTTO ONLINE INTERNATIONAL E-MAIL LOTTERY, and I get paid to make sure you get your winnings without any problems.
I want to congratulate you because your winnings claims have been verified by this office, you have won the sum of$1.100,00(one million one hundred thousand dollars).As I write to you today your package which includes your winning certificate, a cheque worth $1.100,00(one million one hundred thousand dollars) payable to your name and an a four page document which covers money laundering has been taken to the post office to be sent to you through the following address:
Susan Doe
123 Elm Street, Clayton, GA 30525
United States.
You will receive the package within the next few days and as soon as that is done you can take your cheque to any bank of your choice and have your money cashed. As part of our operational policy, we try to make everything easy for our winners and I do hope that when you get your winnings you will not fail to partake in our subsequent ticket lottery programme.
Please do let me know when your package is received and your money cashed so that I in turn can report to the lottery organizers.
I hope to hear from you as soon as your get your package.
Mr Allan Smith
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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