Lottery Scams

If you have received a "winning lottery" e-mail containing links to or address information for any lottery that you have not entered then odds on it is a Lottery scam

Companies rarely enter lottery draws on behalf of non-members and will not send out emails to anyone who has not agreed to be contacted

These e-mails are a type of "advance fee fraud" sent out to try to extort money for "prize handling" or "processing" or to gather information to be used for identity theft purposes.

At the very least a reply to such a message will confirm that your e-mail address is genuine and can be passed on for use in spam lists.

What to do:

• Never send a reply
• Never send any money
• Never send any information.

Just delete the e-mail and forget about it!

For more information on lottery scams and "advance fee fraud" visit the links below:

Email Scam, Fraud and Phishing Resource

Lottery scam - Wikipedia

Advance fee fraud - Wikipedia

World Lottery Association

Common Scams, The National Lottery

Foreign Lottery Scams

Here is an email we recently received there are many more variations of this. Do not be tempted to respond to these emails no matter how genuine they look.................

Lottery Email Scam

UK National Lottery info@yahoo.com.cn>

UK National Lottery,
2 Lansdowne Row,
Berkeley Square,
London, W1J 6H,
United Kingdom

Ref: UK/776090X2/23
Batch: 013/05/8394369

WINNING NOTIFICATION:

We happily announce to you the Draw (#942) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY, online UK National Lottery program held on the 22/11/2008. Your e-mail address attached to Ticket Number: 8603775966738 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the Winning Numbers: 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 27,(BONUS,26), which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e. match 3 plus bonus.

You have therefore been approved to claim total sum of 1,628,360.00 GPB (One Million Six Hundredand Twenty Eight Thousand Three Hundred and Sixty Million Great Britain Pounds) in cash credited to file. This is from a total cash prize of $20,350,000.00, shared amongst the Winners with different amount won in this category i.e. Match 3 plus bonus.

All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions, associations, and corporate bodies that are listed online. This promotion takes place weekly.

your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your play coupon. In view of this, your 1,628,360.00 GPB (One Million Six Hundred And Twenty Eight Thousand Three Hundred And Sixty Million Great Britain Pounds) will be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.

Our European agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact them via their email address. For securityreasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claim 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. Please be warned.

To file for your claim, Please contact our Fiduciary Agent for VALIDATION.

Barrister David Green.
Foreign Services Manager,
Payment and Release order Department,
OSA CLAIMS PROCESSING LOTTERY AGENT.
TRANS-ATLANTIC S.A LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Email: davidgreen_010@yahoo.com.hk
Telephone: +4470359 44761

 You are required to forward Them with the following details immediately.

1.FULL NAME....................
2.COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.............................
3.PRESENT ADDRESS...........................
4.SEX.....................................................
5.DATE OF BIRTH................................
6.AGE ..............................................
7.OCCUPATION.......................................
8.TELEPHONE NUMBERS/CELL....................................
9.FAX NUMBER(IF
ANY)......................................................................
10.MARITAL STATUS
11.WINNING NUMBER, BATCH NUMBER AND LOTTO NUMBER............................
12 THE MONTH YOU WON............................................
13 AMOUNT WON.............................................

As soon as you contact your agent, he will advise you on what to do in order to get your prize money. Congratulations once more!! For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Regards,
Rose Wood
For UK National Lottery 2008

More email scams. There is likely to be a substantial increase in the run up to Christmas and because of the economic downturn, BEWARE

1. Lottery email scam
   
   Recent Lottery email Scams. Do not respond to these type of emails.