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 "Mr ANTHONY CAMPBELL" at "Coca Cola" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Mr.Vendrich Anderson" 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. Have you ever heard of "London Standard Time"? Neither have we. 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:
THE LOTTERY DEPARTMENT
COCA-COLA LOTTERY PROMOTIONS
292, Upper Richmond Rd West,
East Sheen, London, SW14 7JG
United KingdomTRACK Nš: 51024060210
OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION
This is to inform you that have been selected for a cash prize of $450,000.00 ( FOUR HUNDRED & FIFTY THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLAR) programs held on the 8TH OF JANUARY , 2008 in the London U.K.
The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection system(ess) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.
The COCA-COLA LOTTERY is approved by the British/America 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 processing of your prize you are to contact your claims officer through our accredited Prize Transfer agents as stated below:
================================================================
Mr.Vendrich Anderson
292, Upper Richmond Rd West,
East Sheen, London, SW14 7JG
United KingdomEmail: (info.cokewinningclaimsagent2007@yahoo.com.hk)
Fax: 44-87-1247-2187
Phone Number: +44 7031-9426-15
For further enquiries Please call us (10.00am to 5.30 pm london Standard Time) ================================================================
contact him, please provide him with your secret pin code x7pwyz2008 and your reference number BCLY:12052008/21.You are also advised to provide him with the under listed information as soon as possible:
Claims Requirements:
1Name in
full-------------------------------------------------------------------
2.Address---------------------------------------------------------
3.Nationality-----------------------------------------------------
4.Age----------------------------------------------------------------
5.Occupation----------------------------------------------------
6.Phone/Fax-----------------------------------------------------
7.Present
Country------------------------------------------------------------
==================================================================
all winnings not claim on or before 18TH of JANUARY would be revoked. Winners are advised to keep their winning details/information from the public to avoid fraudulent claim (IMPORTANT) pending the transfer/claim by Winner.
*Winner under the age of 18 are automatically disqualified.
*Staff of all COCA-COLA Companies all over the world are not to partake in this Email Promotional Lottery.
Accept my hearty congratulations once again!
Regards
Mr ANTHONY CAMPBELL
(Lottery Manager
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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