Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from "Graham Lewis" at the "UK-GAMING Headquarters" telling you that you won the a prize and to contact "RYAN BOND"? It is a scam. Just read the gibberish phrases and pathetic grammar. If you think that a real lottery writes this poorly, then we suspect you were a crack addict when your were a student.
There are only two legal large lotteries in Britain, the National Lottery and the Monday Lottery, anyway. You must buy a ticket in order to win, and even if you bought a ticket, it is up to you to match the numbers and notify them that you won - they wouldn't notify you (how would they know you won, anyway!?) Below is a scam email actually received.
DO NOT reply to any emails you receive that claim you have won a lottery that you did not enter. They are frauds. You will lose your money. There is no "free lunch"; don't be foolish and believe a scam! We can not say it any more plainly: YOU WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL BY ANY LEGITIMATE LOTTERY THAT YOU WON A PRIZE. If you do receive such an email, it IS a fraud, do not reply to it! If you DID reply to one, see this page to find out what happens next!
Other resources:
Also
In the UK, call the hotline at 020 7211 8111 to check or report lottery scams.
There are many other signs that this is a fraud that we have highlighted in the email below, typically including one or more of these:
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. Your email address cannot ever "win" you a lottery.
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 random CapItaLiZAtion and often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". Real lotteries proofread their emails and use people who can write above the 3rd grade level.
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 lotteries THRIVE on publicity - they don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy more tickets. 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!
Email notification: NO REAL LOTTERY SENDS AN EMAIL TO NOTIFY WINNERS. Period. Full-stop. End of story. There mere fact ALONE that you received an email saying you won a lottery is proof that it is a scam.
Courier / delivery charges are high due to Hardcover insurance Policy - If you respond to them, you will usually receive an email telling you you must pay delivery charges. First, as we mentioned earlier, no winner would ever have to pay delivery charges in a real lottery, sweepstakes or promotion. Secondly, there is no such thing as "hardcover insurance policies" . Go search in Google and see if you can find a definition for it!
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
Fecha: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:54:55 +0000 (UTC)
De: "Uk National Lottery Inc." < info@uklottery.co.uk >
Asunto: Uk Lottery Winning Notification.
UK-GAMING Headquarters:
United Kingdom
Customer Service
Ref: 851125
Batch #: 09-18-21-24-37-48
To the receiver of this mail,
This is to notify you that your email address was officially emerged and won the sum of GBP £650,000.00 ( Six Hundred And Fifty Thousand Pounds in the Online Uk Gaming Board Programme.
The award was held 24th March 2008 and results were released on 28th March 2008.
The winning numbers, Batch number: (UK 09-18-21-24-37-48) Serial
Number: 851125 and a bonus ball of (23).
All online participants was selected from a data base on internet users from which your email address came out as the winning coupon.
In view of this, Your £650 000(Six Hundred & Fifty Thousand British pounds sterling) will be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.
Choose your mode of delivery
(1)BANK TRANSFER(BANK TO BANK TRANSFER)
(2) COURIER DELIVERY(CERTIFIED CHEQUE MADE OUT IN YOUR NAME DELIVERED TO YOU VIA OUR AFFILIATE COURIER COMPANY)
For more information on how to redeem your prize, You are to reply with the information below as soon as you receive this notification.
CONTACT NAME: RYAN BOND
EMAIL: ukclaimsltd2@hotmail.co.uk
Tel:0 44 704 521 4521
INFORMATION FOR CLAIMS
1. Full Names:
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Sex:
5. Marital Status:
6. Occupation:
7. Phone numbers:
8. Country:
Please note the following:
1All claims are nullified after 20 working days from today.
2Your Reference number must be in all your mails with the claims officer.
3Do inform the claims officer of any change of names or addresses.
4Please do not reply to this email. Contact your claims agent.
This international promotion is proudly sponsored by Yahoo! Inc. to encourage the use of the Internet and computers worldwide.
We are proud to say that over 200 Million Pounds are won annually in more than 150 countries worldwide.
Your's Truly
Graham Lewis
CO-ORDINATOR(ONLINE PROMO PROGRAMME)
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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