And a legitimate lottery sweepstakes (or any other legitimate
company) certainly would not use free hotmail,
yahoo, elitist, or aim email accounts.
Notice the gibberish writing, excessive/incorrect use of CAPITAL
letters, lack of decent punctuation misspelling (he can't even spell "hundred"
correctly) and other clues to an obvious fraud that we
have highlighted in the
letter; keep confidential, selected by a random computer lottery of email
addresses, use of free email accounts, etc.
Sample scam email
from: Peter Nolan,
UK-LOTTO Sweepstake Online Lottery International
WINNING NOTIFICATION:
We happily announce to you the draw of the UK-LOTTO Sweepstake Online Lottery
International programs held on the Sunday February 18th 2007 Printable View in
BRESIA ITALY Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 56475600545 188 with
Serial number 5368/02drew the lucky numbers:11-13-26-34-44-48, which
subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$2.5(2million and
five hundrend thousand, United States Dollars) in cash credited to file ktu/9023118308/03.
This is from a total cash prize of US $ US$2.5 million and five
hundrend
thousand dollars, shared amongst the first Ten (10) lucky winners in this
category.
All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through
computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies.
This promotion takes place annually Please note that your lucky winning
number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as
indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your US$2.5 (Two million and five
hundrend thousand USD,
Why Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) would be released to you by our
payment office in europe.
Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the
release of your funds as soon as you contact him.
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information
confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in
whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.
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 file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:
Mr.Henry Watts.
Email: henry_watts02@yahoo.fr
To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your full
names, your country, your private Telephone and fax number, your
reference/batch numbers etc in any correspondences with us or our designated
agent.
Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program. Thank
you for being part of our promotional ottery program
Sincerely,
UK-LOTTO Co-ordinator .
VERIFICATION AND FUND RELEASE FORM Send the following to the company for
proof and verification:-
1.FULL NAMES:__________________________________
2.ADDRESS:_____________________________________________
3.SEX:____________________________________________________
4.AGE:___________________________________________________
5.MARITAL
STATUS:_______________________________________
6.OCCUPATION:___________________________________________
7.E-MAIL
ADDRESS:_______________________________________
8.TELEPHONE
NUMBER:_____________________
9.BATCH NUMBER:____________________ B. REF
NUMBER:______________
10.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF
COMPANY/INDIVIDUAL___________
11.AMOUNT
WON:___________________________________
12.
COUNTRY________________________________
Upon receipt of the duly requested data, I will send you the contact
information of the payment office so you can proceed with effecting the release
of your claim in anyway you deem fit.
Warm Regards,
Sincerely Yours
Nolan Peter (Mr.)
International Relation Officer.
The potential victim wrote back to the scammer. Here is his email to
the scammer:
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
file ktu/9023118308/03.
Dear Henry Watts:
Since all communications of this type I have received have been frauds, I
require the following from you:
1) Copies of all relevant documents, eg. official copy of lottery selection
and announcement; certifications that the lottery you represent is a legal
entity in the European Countries in your E-mail; and documents verifying that
you are authorized to act in this matter.
2. Assurance that no personal information or business information will be
required from me for any reason.
3. Please arrange to have any funds transferred by Registered or Cashier's
Check. I hereby authorize that any fees or processing charges must be deducted
from the winnings. No funds will be transferred from the US for any reason.
If I do not hear from you directly I will assume that this is a fraud and
will direct all of this information to appropriate US and International
Authorities.
The scammer wrote back:
VISUAL DISPATCH DELIVERY
Victoria House
144-146 Beddington Lane
Croydon CR0 4TD United Kingdom
Tel: +44 701 1121594
Dear John Doe,
Your reference number has been confirmed. This means that you have been
officially cleared for payment by the Verifications Dept. at the headquarters of
the UK LOTTERY DEPARTMENT. Your winning cheque, original copy of your winning
certificate, together with a covering document (Money Laundering protection and
Letter of Affidavit for Claims) from the UK LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS stating that
the money was obtained legally through their National lottery promotion will be
sent to you as soon as you choose from any of the option stipulated below.
To begin the final step of the claims process, which is the dispatchment of
your winning cheque and other relevant claims documents . With regards to this,
there are Three options open to you.
You are required to select the most convenient of the Three.
The options, together with their associated conditions are presented
below: You are required to pay the necessary courier charges to enable us send
you your cheque and other claims documents.
We are delivering your winning cheque and other claims documents to you via
any of this channel listed below:
DHL
Mailing $265.00
Insurance $278.00
Vat (5%) $40.00
TOTAL $583.00
UPS
Mailing $300.00
Insurance $150.00
Vat (5%) $50.00
TOTAL $500.00
FEDEX
Mailing $320.00
Insurance $115.00
Vat (5%) $40.00
TOTAL $475.00
This company declined reverse payment for these charges, stating that it is
against their professional policy towards ensuring the safe delivery of the cheque to you. That if a reverse payment is made, and something goes wrong, that
we/you cannot sue the courier company or insurance company to recover the full
value of the fund as stipulated in the cheque since payment for insurance cover
was not made at point of mailing. With the above reason, reverse payment is ruled
out.
Note: that your prize is protected by a hardcover insurance policy, which
makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it has been
remitted to you. This means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the
prize and hence must be provided by you before your prize is transferred to you.
This is in accordance with section 13(1)(n) of the national gambling act as
adopted in 1993 and amended on 3RD July 1996 by the constitutional assembly. This
is to protect winners and to avoid misappropriation of funds Send your response
to indicate your option within the next 24hrs, because you only have till 28th
Febuary 2007 to claim this cheque and after this period, your cash prize will be
deemed to have been forfeited by you and will be sent back to the lottery board.
Once again, congratulations.
YOURS SINCERELY,
Mr Henry Watts.
(Fiduciary Agent)
