Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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And now, scammers use the South African National Lottery in a scam. It's another "computer ballot system" lottery scam. If you haven't figured it out by now, we'll repeat; there is NO SUCH THING as a lottery "in which e-mail addresses are picked randomly by software powered by the Internet" to select winners. Not only does the real South African National Lottery NOT use email addresses to choose winners, they would NEVER send a winner an email. Lottery winners must ALWAYS contact the lottery first!.
If this isn't enough to prove this is a scam, consider the website and email addresses the scammers use: it isn't the address of the real South African National Lottery which is www.lotto.co.za. And just to make the scammer even more preposterous, they claim Microsoft is sponsoring it. Yeah, Microsoft is going to give away money. Perhaps they will... when pigs can fly!
Notice the gibberish writing, excessive use of CAPITAL letters, etc. Note the 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 hotmail/yahoo email accounts, etc.
A potential victim received the email below, and actually wrote the "contact" and said that she had never set foot in the UK to enter a lottery, to which he replied with the second e-mail (below the first). Scammers are certainly persistent.
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL LOTTERY
C/O MICROSOFT GATEWAY EMAIL ON-LINE LOTTERY PRIZE AWARD
Website: http://www.salottery.co.za
Send Email to: enquiry_salottery.co.za@zarqa.cc
contact_nlsacoza@yahoo.co.uk
REF: SANL/4421-ILGIO3541/07
BATCH: MGF/28/652/SANL
RE: YOUR EMAIL WINNING NOTIFICATION
Dear Valuable Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Microsoft Gateway Emails Lottery Prize Award held 1st January 2007.
Your e-mail address (xxxxxx@xxxx.xxx) attached to ticket number 278541455231-3541 with serial Number 2887-652 drew lucky numbers 6-12-17-32-54-42 which consequently, won in the 1st category.
Therefore you have been approved for South African Rand currency equivalent sum of US$2,500,000 (Two Million Five hundred thousand United States Dollars) Lottery Prize Award on your name.
Due to regulations and privacy policy, we advise you to keep strictly personal and confidendial of your winning information until you contact our authorised licensed Operator/Fiduciary Agent for your claim. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this Lottery Prize Award by some participants.
All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 30,000,000 individual email addresses and 20,000 company names from all over the World.
This Award takes place annually, solely promoted and sponsored by Microsoft Gateway Email On-line Lottery Prize Award in collaboration with the South African National Lottery, (the only Government of South Africa officially licensed and registered National Lottery).
For immediate release of your Lottery Prize award amount (US$2,500,000), contact our licensed Operator/Fiduciary Agent: Uthingo Management (Pty) Ltd., Website: www.uthingo.co.za Email: info_uthingo.co.za@zarqa.cc
Remember, all winning must be claimed on or before 31st of March 2007. In order to avoid any delay and complication, always remember to quote your Reference and Batch numbers in all your correspondences when contacting our afore-mentioned Fiduciary Agent.
Congratulations from me and members of staff of THE NATIONAL LOTTERY IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Note: You must be 16 or over to play or claim a prize
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Eunice Zamquoma. Secretary,
Lottery Co-ordinator.
(Copyright ) 1994-2007 The National Lottery in South Africa. All rights reserved. Terms of Service - Guideline.
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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