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 "Mrs. Deborah L. Spencer" at "Presidential Library & Museum" saying you won "$1,000,000.00 Million United States Of America Dollars" just because... you use the internet! Just contact "Mr. Thomas Hegland" to collect your winnings?
If we hear of ONE person who actually believes that this is legitimate, then humanity has no hope. The "stupidity gene" must have replicated.
It is a scam. A truly absurd 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:
From: lenaspencer <lenaspencer@netcabo.pt>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 8:31:40 AM
Subject: Attention: Dear Prominent User Of The InternetAttention: Dear Prominent User Of The Internet
How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family?
I hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition. This is from a total cash prize of US 50,000,000 Million dollars, given to the first FIFTY (50) people who will be compensated in this world internet programs.Allparticipants were selected randomly from World Wide Web
site Through computer draw system and extracted from over 700.000 companies I am using this opportunity to thank you for using the internet daily.Due to your effort, using internet programs indoor and in your office,We want to compensate you and show our gratitude to you with the sum of
$1,000,000.00 Million United States Of America Dollars we have authorized Mr. Thomas Hegland to assist your in getting your compensation check
across to you.The name and contact address of the Mr. Thomas Hegland is as follows;COMPENSATION HEAD OFFICE
CONTACT AGENT: Mr. Thomas Hegland
EMAIL: claimsagent_hegland02@yahoo.frFinally remember that I have forwarded instruction to Mr. Thomas Hegland on your behalf to send the cash prize of One Million United State Of
America Dollars to you as soon as you contact him without delay .
Mrs. Deborah L. Spencer
Presidential Library & Museum
Former Director International Online
Lottery Co-coordinator. © 2008 WORLD
INTERNET PROGRAMS
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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