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. Litza Martinez" at "Samsung Electronics Lottery / Lotteria" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Dr. Owen Briggs" to collect your winnings? I suspect Samsung would be surprised to learn that they have a lottery-promotion-sweepstakes-lotteria (whatever THAT may be!). And pity poor Doctor Briggs: he studied hard to get a PhD, and now he works as a reimbursement clerk in a promotions department.
Of course, 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 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: samsungelect1@yahoo.com.hk
Subject: INFORMATION FROM SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS
SAMSUNG DE LOTTERIA
INTERNET EXTRA AWARD PROGRAM),
U.K OFFICE.ENGLAND.
FROM: THE DESK OF THE PROMOTIONAL LOTTERY COORDINATOR, INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/ PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT.
HART STREET 34,WALSALL.WS1 3PE
WEST MIDLAND, LONDON.
Ref: EGS/2251256003/02
Batch: 14/0017/1PD
INFORMATION FROM SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS The board of directors and entire member of staff of the SAMSUNG DE LOTTERIA wishes to inform you of the result of the (Email Address Ballot)online Sweepstakes international program held at the British Headquarter.
Your email account have been picked as a winner of Six Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling(£600,000.00) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total sum of Four Million, Two hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling (£
4,200,000.00) shared amongst seven winners.
This results for 12th JANUARY, 2008 is now released to you today and your email address attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial number
5368/02 drew the lucky numbers - 01- 02- 04 - 38 - 42- 43- and bonus ball -
23 - in the Lotto,participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from Microsoft users from company and individual email address users.
Your fund is now deposited in an offshore bank with a hardcover insurance.
Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we advice that you keep this award from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your nominated bank account as this is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unwarranted taking advantage of this program by the general public.
Be advice to keep your winning information confidential until your claims have been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. For the release of your winning, kindly contact your claims supervisory officer at
**********************************************
The Samsung Lotteria Head Quarters,
PROMOTIONS/ PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT.
HART STREET 34,WALSALL.WS1 3PE
WEST MIDLAND, LONDON.
Payment Release Order Department
Contact Person: Dr. Owen Briggs
Tel: +44 70457 66600
+44 70457 66386
Fax:+44 70928 90315
Email: owen_briggs@hotmail.com
*************************************************
You are therefore advised to give the following informations to the fiduciary Dr. Owen Briggs vian email owen_briggs@hotmail.com 1. Full name and address.
2. Country.
3. Tel and fax number.
4. Occupation.
5.Email Address.
6.Age:
7.Country:
8.Scanned International Passport/Driver Liences.
Congratulations from the entire member of staff and thank you for being part of our email account users program.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Litza Martinez,
Executive (International Sweepstakes).
Dr. P. Swier, Mr. Gerald Goodman (Manager Foreign Operations), Mr. Franklyn Van Der Weijden (Manager Domestic Banking Operations), Dr. James Williams(Director International Credit Department), Mrs. Sandra Murphy (Executive), Mr. Michael Cole (Executive), Mr.Stephen Boer (Chairman).
___________________________________________________________
Fidelity Communications Webmail - http://webmail.fidnet.com
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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