Have you received an email from "Mr.Martins Douglas" at "MasterCard® / Visa® Award Promotion" saying you won
their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "British Airways Courier®" to collect your winnings? It is a scam.
Had enough? Or are you still so desperate to become a victim,
that you will believe anything? 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 give money away randomly to encourage you to buy their product. That would be
pointless and 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 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 victim also said: "Also I called the phone # posted for the courier and a
man answered trying to get met to pay the insurance fee for the package."
Contact Courier Service For Your Winning Parcel
(Registration No.: U971132B ***Call To Confirm***)‏‏
From: Martins Douglass (
martinsdouglass@live.com )
Sent:Sat 3/29/08 7:38 AM
MasterCard®
/ Visa® Award Promotion
19 Queen Victori,London,LS16BE
CLAIMS OFFICE, UNITED KINGDOM
DIRECTOR: MR. HERON DAVIES
ATTN:***PRIZE WINNER***"Michael Alan Martin,
Serial No:M/Vcard/65368/05/2008
Ticket No:M/VCard/023-0148-790-459
This is to inform you that you have been
cleared/approved payment as one of winners of the MasterCard ®/ Visa® Award
Promotion. I, Mr. Martins Douglas the Promotion Manager of the MasterCard ®/
Visa® Award Promotion is happy to inform you that the original copy of
winning certificate/certified bank check of £500,000.00GBP (Five Hundred
Thousand Great Britain Pounds) has been registered and
fowarded to the
British Airways Courier® for delivery.Find below the details of the courier
company.
Note:Send your information to courier service below.
British Airways Courier®
13A Chesilton Road, London SW6 5AA
England,United Kingdom,
Tel:+44 704 572 5717
Fax: +44 709 286 9036
Email:
dispatch_bairwaycourier@hotmail.com
Kindly fill this form below and contact the Courier
Company above via Email/Phone for the 24hours delivery of your winnings.
PARCEL REGISTRATION NO: U971132B
ORDER CODE:BA22589420
FULL NAMES:_______________
CONTACT ADDRESS______________
TEL:________
CELL NUMBER_______
COUNTRY:_______________
Note:
1.The courier delivery charges fee will be paid by
international winner and cannot be deducted from their Winnings.
2.Quote your complete names,winning amount and your
direct phone number so that they can honour your request.
Congratulations once more from members and staffs of
the MasterCard ®/ Visa ® Award Promotion.
Best Regards
Mr.Martins Douglas
MasterCard ®/ Visa® Award Promotion Department
THIS E-MAIL IS CONFIDENTIAL. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please notify us by return e-mail and delete the
document. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that
any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking any action in reliance on
the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be
unlawful.MasterCard ®/ Visa® Award Promotion is not liable for the proper
and complete transmission of the information contained in this communication
or for any delay in its receipt.
