Sweepstakes Scam Email:
Publishers Clearing House
International Promotions
"Horin Elizabeth", "Mr. Harry Johnson"
Have you received an email from "Horin Elizabeth" at "PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS" telling you that "your
email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to
contact "Mr. Harry Johnson" to collect your winnings? It is a
scam. No legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners via email*! The scammers may
change the names and details, but it is still a scam!
Below is another example of a fake lottery; this email claims to
be from the "PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS". It's
clear that this is a scam that has nothing to do with the real company
"Publisher's Clearinghouse".
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. Real lotteries also proofread their emails
and look and read more professional.
-
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to
you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization
would use its own email, its own domain and website?
-
Keep Confidential - Real sweepstakes and lotteries THRIVE on
publicity - they don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity
causes people to enter or buy more of their products. 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!"
-
Require the winner to pay - U.S. federal law
prohibits sweepstakes from charging you for anything, not "delivery",
couriers, taxes, fees, handling charges, or anything else!
Here is a typical scam sweepstakes winning notification.
Actual scam email (One example - the scammers constantly change
names, dates and addresses!):
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:18:33 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Pch Beneficiary
From: "PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL" <
pchsender@hotmail.com >
Reply-to:
harryjohnsonpch@gmail.com
PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS PCH
INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Dear Publishers Clearing House Beneficiary,
We the Board of Directors for Publishers Clearing
House(UK) official organisers of the Publisher's Clearing House Giveaway
Programme brings to your notice that you are the lucky winner and beneficiary of
the just concluded giveaway prize of 500,000.00 GB Pounds(Five Hundred Thousand
Great Britain Pounds Sterlings) with the Giveaway #
- 13101, Batch # - PCH/008-13101, Ref. # - 012057-SSL.
To file for your claims ,please follow below instructions:
COMPLETE THE BELOW INFORMATION & FORWARD TO PCH
FUDICIARY AGENT *Required Details: Complete Names, Contact Address, Present
Country, Telephone#, Mobile#, Email, Occupation, Sex, Marital Status.
*Amount Won:
*Giveaway Number:
*Batch Number:
*Reference Number:
FIDICIARY AGENT: Mr. Harry Johnson.
EMAIL:
harryjohnson7844@gmail.com
OFFICE ADDRESS: 8 Sherps Road, Brickston Lane, London
W4C 7ER Phone. +447031887020
+447031887021
Fax. +448709748906
Please note that the information required will not be
furnished to any third party and will be used for the purpose at which it is
required.
Beneficiaries are warned to keep their claims
confidential until they have completed the remittance process to avoid double
claiming and unwarranted abuse of this programme.
Warmest Congratulations,
Horin Elizabeth
Message Headers
From PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL Thu Apr 17
07:18:33 2008
X-YahooFilteredBulk: 61.19.156.195
X-Originating-IP: [61.19.156.195]
Return-Path: <pchsender@hotmail.com>
Authentication-Results: mta211.mail.re4.yahoo.com from=hotmail.com;
domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 61.19.156.195 (EHLO
smtpgw.sandenintercool.com) (61.19.156.195) by mta211.mail.re4.yahoo.com with
SMTP; Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:23:58 -0700
Received: by smtpgw.sandenintercool.com (Postfix, from
userid 501) id 6D17C117A68; Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:18:36 +0700 (ICT)
Received: from sandenintercool.com (localhost.localdomain
[127.0.0.1]) by smtpgw.sandenintercool.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 001FC117990;
Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:18:32 +0700 (ICT)
Received: from 78.135.14.1 (proxying for 10.5.50.38) (SquirrelMail
authenticated user yothin) by mail.sandenintercool.com with HTTP; Thu, 17 Apr
2008 14:18:33 -0000 (GMT)
Message-ID: <55183.78.135.14.1.1208441913.squirrel@mail.sandenintercool.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:18:33 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Pch Beneficiary
From: "PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE INTERNATIONAL" <pchsender@hotmail.com>
Add Mobile Alert
To:
X-Priority: 3
Importance: Normal
Reply-to: harryjohnsonpch@gmail.com
X-Mailer: SquirrelMail (version 1.2.11)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=tis-620
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-PostfixSecure-Antispam: valid
Content-Length: 1421
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule
- and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would used their
safegaurds.
Names of Scam / Fake / Fraud Lottery
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery
scams companies
***
| 
