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Sample Promotion Prize Scam Email:
MICROSOFT WINNING NOTIFICATION
"MR HERLEY PETTERSON, EURO AFRO-ASIAN ZONAL CO-ORDINATOR", "DR JOHANS VIDIC"
Have you received an email from "MR HERLEY PETTERSON, EURO AFRO-ASIAN ZONAL CO-ORDINATOR" at "MICROSOFT WINNING NOTIFICATION" saying you won
their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "DR JOHANS VIDIC" to collect your winnings?
We don't mean to be insulting, but if you believe that Microsoft along with the
Sultan of Brunei, give away money to "encourage the use of internet and
computers world wide", and they would have you reply to a free email account of
a competitor to Microsoft (Yahoo), then we must assume that your mother enrolled
you heavyweight wrestling tournaments while you were a baby. Nothing else
could explain such massive brain damage.
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.
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:
Sample scam email
From: MICROSOFT XP WINDOW < eaasl_p_018@hotmail.co.uk >
Subject: MICROSOFT WINNING NOTIFICATION.
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:45:53 +0100
FROM: MR HERLEY PETTERSON.
E.A.A.S
Lottery Headquarters:
Customer Service
580 N. Tenth Street Sacramento,
Euro - Afro Asian Sweepstake Lottery
London United Kingdom.
MICROSOFT
WINNING NOTIFICATION.
We happily announce to you the draw of the Euro - Afro Asian
Sweepstake Lottery International programs held
on Monday 12 March 2007 in LONDON
ENGLAND.Your e-mail address attached to ticket number:
EAASL-130876 which subsequently won you the lottery in the 3rd
category.You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of
£150.000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand
pounds sterling)
This is
from a total cash prize of £1,500,000 ,shared amongst the first
ten(10) lucky winners in this category.Please note that your lucky
winning number falls within our europe booklet representative in
LONDON ,ENGLAND as indicated in your play coupon.
In view of
this, your £150.000.00(One Hundred and Fifty Thousand pounds
sterling) cheque would be released to you by our
fudiciary agent in
LONDON,ENGLAND. Our Fudiciary agent will immediately commence the
process to facilitate the release of your check as soon as you
contact him. All participants were selected randomly from World Wide
Web sites and guestbooks through computer draw system and extracted
from over 100,000 individuals and companies. This promotion takes
place annually and it is sponsored by Sultan of Brunei
Bill Gates of
Microsoft and his associates
to encourage the use of internet
and computers world wide.
For
security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning
informations
confidential till your claims is processed and your cheque delivered
to your nominated address through an approved delivering officer
appointed specially for this program. This is part of our
precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse
of this program by some unscrupulous elements. Please be warned
To begin your claim please contact our
licensed and accredited agent assigned to you
DR JOHANS
VIDIC.
EURO AFRO-ASIAN LOTTERY
Information and Payment Bureau:
1290 London Representative Office.
Phone:+44-7011140638
Fax:+44-870-479-6623
E-mail:dr_johansvidic034@yahoo.co.uk
To avoid
unnecessary delays and complications, you are to contact DR JOHANS
VIDIC.with the followings details below:
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE
FORM
1.FULL NAMES:
2.ADDRESS:
3.SEX:
4.AGE:
5.MARITAL STATUS:
6.OCCUPATION:
7COMPANY NAME
8.E-MAIL ADDRESS:
9.TELEPHONE NUMBER:
10.STATE:
11.COUNTRY:
12 NEXT OF KIN:
13HOW DO YOU FEEL AS A WINNER:
14AMOUNT WON:
2.Quote your Ticket number in any
correspondences with us or our designated agent.Winners under 18
years of age will be authomatically disqualified.
DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL, CONTACT YOUR
FIDUCIARY AGENT DIRECTLY DR JOHANS
VIDIC.E-mail:dr_johansvidic034@yahoo.co.uk
Sincerely,
FROM: MR HERLEY PETTERSON.
EURO AFRO-ASIAN ZONAL CO-ORDINATOR.
Names of Scam / Fake / Fraud Lottery
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery
scams companies
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