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 "Management" at "Coca Cola" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Mrs Alice Campbell" to collect your winnings? And this is from "Coca-Cola in conjunction with Ipod Worldwide Promotion"? What has Coke got to do with Ipods, which are a product, not a company (Apple makes them). And if it is a promotion, why haven't you or ANYONE you know heard of it? Not much of a promotion, is it? It is a scam. And don't get too excited if the names are different; the scammers make many versions of this scam!
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.
It is also very similar to the scam on this page.
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 or a lottery, then this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it, outside of the email you just received. Just giving away money to random people who have an email address wouldn't promote a darn thing! It is a scam!
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:
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 11:32:54 -0400
From: result@cocacola.orgTo: Distribution@
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!! Your Email Has Won £750,000.00 In The Coca-Cola 2007 New Year Promo
Coca-Cola Company
Online Department
22 Garden Close, Stamford
Lincs,PE9 2YP,London
United Kingdom.THE COCACOLA COMPANY OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded draws held on the {22nd Of March, 2007} by Coca-Cola in conjunction with Ipod Worldwide Promotion. Your email was among the 20 Lucky winners who won £750,000.00{Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pounds} each in the Coca-Cola Company 2007 online Promo.
This draw is being organized to enhance awareness and publicity of the Coca-Cola Zero product.
However the results were released on the {24th Of March,2007} and your email was attached to ticket number (7PWYZ2007) and ballot number (BT:12052007/20) The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031,643 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. However, no tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) .
This Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also licensed by the The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). This lottery is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public.
To begin the claim processing of your prize you are to contact the Online Co-ordinator and provide her with the following informations as stated below, so we can proceed with the verification and clearance process of your file.
1. Full Names : ...........................................
2. Residential Address : ...........................................
3. Phone Number :Mobile&Home ..........................................
4. Fax Number : ..........................................
5. Occupation : ..........................................
6. Sex : ..........................................
7. Age : ..........................................
8. Nationality :.....................
9.Ballot No. :.......................
10.Ticket No.:......................
Mrs Alice Campbell.
Online Co-ordinator.
22 Garden Close, Stamford,
Lincs,PE9 2YP,London
United KingdomEmail: cocacolaclaimsccc3@yahoo.co.uk
*You are adviced to forward these informations as soon as possible to enable us attend to your file. This email is registered and sent only to a certified coca-cola online promo winner. Due to possible mix up of some numbers and email contacts, we ask that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by some participants of this program.
*Staff of Coca-Cola and Ipod Worldwide Promotions are not to partake in this programme.
Accept our hearty congratulations once again!
Yours Faithfully,
Management.
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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