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Sample Promotion Prize Scam Email:
Visa Credit Card Lottery Promotions
"Mr. Dylan Rhys", "dylan.rhys@sbcglobal.net"
Have you received an email from "Mr. Dylan Rhys" at "Visa Credit Card Lottery Promotions" saying you won
their promotion or lottery promo and to contact him at "dylan.rhys@sbcglobal.net" to collect your winnings?
Wow! So the credit card company, Visa, operates a "lottery
promotion program" in which they randomly select winners who may not even have a
Visa credit card, using a computer balloting system of email addresses from the
"WWW"? And they even have "subsequent Lottery Jackpots"?
Who knew? They must keep this publicity promotion a well
hidden secret!
OK, in case you just fell off the turnip truck or are merely
incredibly gullible, 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:
Sample scam email
Claims Procedures for Category A+.‏
From: Mr.Dylan Rhys (
dylan.rhys@sbcglobal.net )
Sent: February 27, 2008 4:55:02 AM
Dear Winner,
On Behalf of the Company, I say Congratulations to
you for being a winner in this Grand Category (A+). We have received your
email with utmost delight in the
Visa Credit Card Lottery Promotions programs held in London and the
few eligible winners (Three) contacted personally.
All Participants were selected through a
Computer Balloting System drawn from
a pool of over 25,000 E-mails of distinguished World Wide Web (WWW)
drawn from Europe, America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, parts
of Africa, and South America. As part of our International Promotions
Program conducted annually to encourage prospective overseas entries. We
hope that with part of your Prize awards, you will take part in our
subsequent Lottery Jackpots.
In line with the Governing rules of claim, you are
requested to furnish us the following information
1. Full Names.
2. Residential Address.
3. Occupation.
4. Tel/Fax.
5. Date of Birth.
6. Nationality.
7. Winning Numbers.
Do understand that, this is done to ensure that, we
are dealing with the rightful winner in this Category to avoid double
claiming by non-winners as your winning amount is £1,500,000 GBP (One
million Five hundred thousand great British pounds sterling) and as such
cannot afford any uncertainty.
In Receipt of the required information we shall
start with the verification, processing and certification of your claims.
Importantly, for the enablement of your Claims, you
are advised to comply with our payout procedures, as these are mere
formalities that will guarantee payment of prizes to all qualified winners
in this Category and not to Non Winners.
Furthermore note that, all prizes should be claimed
not later than the stipulated Deadline. After this date, all unclaimed
prizes will be returned to the British Gaming Board (B.G.B) which will be in
turn sent to the Lottery Commission for subsequent Lottery Draws.
Upon the Acknowledgement of the above, we shall
start the immediate verification and processing of your Claims.
Mr. Dylan Rhys,
Direct Tel: +44 704 570 9498
Fax: +44 709 288 7389.
Email:
dylan.rhys@sbcglobal.net
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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