Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Did you know that Yahoo has a lottery? And that they give away huge amounts of money to people simply for having "an active online email account"? This is news to Yahoo, too. If you received an email from "Rev. Philip Durund" at "Yahoo Splash Promotions" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact him at the "Yahoo Claims Department" to collect your winnings, it is a scam.
Yahoo has never had any lottery (and we're pretty sure they never will). We doubt whether any "Reverend" would even consider work for a lottery, given the obvious conflict with religion! Yahoo certainly doesn't "collect email addresses" or selects winners "using a database of email addresses", or "from websites worldwide", or from "our computer ballot system". Each of those activities would be illegal in many countries, under existing privacy laws. Not to mention, it simply makes no sense for Yahoo to simply give away money. Real lotteries take in much more money than they give away, through ticket sales? Businesses are not lotteries - customers don't buy or use their products or services on the hope that the company will run a lottery for its customers. And it's just plain dumb to believe that!
The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam! Don't be an complete imbecile!
Below is the example of the fake email scam (the email is the scam, not any persons or companies named in the email) claiming to be from the "Yahoo Splash Promotions".
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery will ever email a winner, 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:
Yahoo does not have or sponsor any lottery.
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Yahoo has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they suggest.
"No tickets were sold": You care to explain where the money comes from? Perhaps the lottery money fairy? Why would a lottery give away money to "email address randomly selected by a computer ballot draw system"? This is CLEARLY nonsense: you MUST, repeat MUST buy a ticket to have a chance of winning any 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 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.) - often not even a Yahoo free account. Don't you think Yahoo would write from their own corporate address?
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! It should read: "For our own security, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential until we have finished scamming you!"
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.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
Awards Department - Yahoo Splash Promotions Stockport Road, Longsight, Manchester M60 2DB - United Kingdom
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Dear ________________,
We acknowledge the receipt of your mail with regard to the winning notification as earlier sent to you from the Awards Department. The 2008 Award of the Yahoo United Kingdom is no doubt, a momentous achievement in the chequered history of this Organisation.
On behalf of the entire staff of the Organisation, I wish to congratulate the Director of Yahoo Inc. and other non-Governmental Organisations who have in no little way contributed immensely towards the success of this draw as well as taking concrete steps towards it's actualization. All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web through computer draw system and e-mail addresses were extracted from over 170,287 companies and 454,980,476 Websites. This promotion is part of the financial empowerment programme of Yahoo United Kingdom in it's struggle to alleviate poverty.
While basking in the euphoria of this achievement, I wish to seize this opportunity to acquaint you with guidelines as you must follow in order to complete your claims. On our part, we have a mandate to see you through. We will work assiduously to realize this mandate as we respect your views, opinions and most importantly preserve your dignity and confidentiality. We would also like you to use the fund that you shall be getting in the field that will benefit the less privileged people around you.
Please, Kindly provide us with the following information for the preparation of your Certificate of Award and filing of your claim;
Full name.......................................
Address.........................................
Age...............................................
Sex...............................................
Nationality......................................
Home Telephone #...........................
Office Telephone #...........................
Mobile Telephone #..........................
Fax #.............................................
E-mail address.................................
Marital Status..................................
Occupation......................................
You may also receive similar e-mails from people portraying to be other Organizations or Yahoo Awards. This is solely to collect your personal information from you and lay claim over your Fund. If you receive any mail similar to the notification letter that was sent to you earlier, Kindly forward a copy to us and delete it from your mail box and give no further correspondence to such person or body. Yahoo Awards shall not be held responsible for any loss of fund arising from the above mentioned.
Once again, We congratulate you for this landmark achievement and implore you with the responsibility of ensuring successful claims.
We will get back to you with further proceedings on receipt of your mail.
Kind Regards,
Rev. Philip Durund
(Claims Department)
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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