Tag Archives: scam
I Won the Lottery! Or, Maybe Not (Page 1 of 2)
I must be the luckiest person alive. In the past three days I found out I won 1.5 Million Euros in the UK lottery, One Million Euros in the Winx International Lottery, 1.5 Million Euros in the 2007 E-Mail Lottery, and 500,000 Pounds in an e-mail lottery held by the Coca Cola Company. Wow! What did I do to receive all these riches?
The sad truth is there are actually people who fall for these schemes. For the promise of a quick buck (or million Euros as the case may be) people will turn over their bank account numbers, wire money in the hopes of getting more back, or give other information that could lead to identity theft.
These lottery and sweepstakes schemes have gone on long before the internet, with one of the oldest being the phony sweepstakes which required an entrance fee to claim your prize, which amounted to more than the prize was worth. Another variation of that scheme was requiring the potential winner to call a certain number to find out if he or she was a winner. The phone call cost the potential winner a certain amount per minute with an unusually-long wait time on hold. The real winner was the scamming company which made money off the phone calls.
Todays thieves have a wide choice of scam-delivery mechanisms, including in person, the mail, phone and internet. However, the same holds true no matter how the scam is delivered: if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
How Can You Recognize the Lottery or Sweepstakes Scam?
There are certainly legitimate lotteries and sweepstakes offers. Who hasnt bought a state or multi-state lottery ticket from their local lottery retailer? Or, who hasnt seen one of those sweepstakes offered by a recognized company advertising in the coupon section of the Sunday newspaper? You fill out the entry form or reasonable facsimile (usually a 3x5 card) with your name and address and send it off.
Therein is your biggest clue as to whether youre the victim of a scam. In a legitimate lottery or sweepstakes you have bought the ticket or entered your name and address. In a scam lottery or sweepstakes you are notified youve won when you havent even entered or bought a ticket.
In addition, its illegal to use the mail or telephone to play lotteries across borders, whether national or state lines. Any lottery offer involving the purchase of lottery tickets for other state or country lotteries could end up with you being charged with illegal activities.
One ploy used by foreign scammers involving lotteries or sweepstakes is offering you an advance on your winnings. The scam artist will send you a check for part of your winnings. All you have to do is wire them payment for taxes or other official purposes. By the time you find out their check has bounced the money you wired is in their hands. And, because it was wired its harder to trace.
Lottery scammers dont always use e-mail or the phone. Sometimes they do their dirty work in person. A typical scam would go something like this: You are approached in person by someone who claims he or she just won the lottery but isnt eligible to claim it. They offer to split the money with you if you claim the prize. Sounds good, right? Except that before you claim the prize from the lottery retailer you are required to withdraw some money from your account and give it to the ticket holder as a good-faith gesture. By the time you find out youre holding a non-winning lottery ticket, the thief is long-gone with your good-faith money.
2010 World Cup Brings Lottery Scammers Out of the Woodwork!
The FIFA World Cup will take place this year in South Africa and will probably be the most watched sports event on the planet. In 2006 an estimated 715.1 million people viewed the World Cup which was held in Germany. All of the matches of the 2010 games are expected to be sold out and football fans from around the world will descend on South Africa this June and July. Unfortunately the demand for tickets has prompted scammers to take advantage of World Cup fever. A new series of emails are making the rounds telling the gullible they have won several million dollars in the “World Cup Lottery. Basically this is a variation on the old and well known 419 advance fee scam.
One email titled “The South African 2010 World Cup Bid International Lottery” has been making the rounds of email inboxes around the world. There are several features of this particular email that are clear indications of a typical lottery scam. The first and most obvious clue is that no legitimate lottery will notify winners via email. The scammers will tell their victims that there email address was selected by computer email draw or a computer ballot system. Put bluntly there is no such thing as a random email ballot system. The spelling, syntax and misspellings in the emails are another clear indication of a typical lottery scam. These emails are obviously written by persons not well versed in the English language and most people in South Africa use English as a primary language.
Another indication that the World Cup lottery is a scam is the use of free email accounts. Check out the official UK National Lottery website or any other official lottery website and you will see that official lottery websites never use free email accounts. Asking the lottery winner to keep their big win confidential is probably the most obvious indication of a lottery scam. Lotteries love publicity and encourage big winners to come forward to claim their winnings and to talk to the media. And finally, no legitimate lottery notifies winners by emailever!
You may wonder just where the scammers got your email address. The answer is simple; scammers harvest email addresses from websites you may have visited such as blogs, comments on public forums or any other websites that are publicly accessible. Scammers use rogue programs to search the internet for email addresses. Cyber criminals also sell email lists to spammers and scammers. Protect yourself from scammers and enjoy the greatest sporting event in the worldthe 2010 World Cup!