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 "Wilfred Alberto" at the "Royal Spainish Sweepstake Lottery Email Promotional Program" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "DR.RICHARD ANTONIO" to collect your winnings? Wouldn't you think they would know how to spell their own name, "Spanish" correctly? And what is a "sweepstake Lottery Email Promotion"? That's just plain gibberish! Come on, people, turn your brains on to see these obvious signs of a scam. And don't get too excited if the names are different; the scammers make many versions of this scam!
It is actually a very simple scam. They claim you won a promotion, which is giving away millions of dollars based on a randomly selected email address. The scam is obvious: it's simply preposterous to think that any company would randomly give away money to encourage you to buy their product. That would be self-defeating.
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery, and almost no legitimate sweepstakes or promotions will 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:
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.
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.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use its own email, its own domain and website? Wouldn't they want to promote that?
Keep Confidential - Real promotions THRIVE on publicity: that's the purpose of them! They don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy their product. 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!"
What are they promoting? No one promotes "world peace" or "use of the internet" by handing out millions to random strangers. And if they are promoting a product or a lottery, then this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it, outside of the email you just received. Just giving away money to random people who have an email address wouldn't promote a darn thing! It is a scam!
Pay a fee to collect the prize: Nope, it is illegal for free sweepstakes and promotions to charge you ANYTHING! Of course, in a scam, that is the whole point: to get you to send money to the scammer.
It is a typical scam promotion sweepstakes winning notification. Also see these pages:
From: AGRO CONSULTANCY AND SECURITIES < INFO@AGROCONSULTANCY.SE >
Reply-To: agro.consultancy@yahoo.se
Subject: E- MAIL TICKET NUMBER 811141925 (2) (7) YOU ARE A WINNER!!!
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:19:20 -0400INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
CALLE GRANVIA 32N 1C MADRID SPAIN
REF: RSSL/61-ILGI0509/45
BATCH:RSSL/15/096/WRCS
DATE:1/25/2007
Dear Winner,
AWARD NOTIFICATION FINAL NOTICE
This is to inform you of the release of the Royal Spainish Sweepstake Lottery Email Promotional Program held on the 29st December 2006, this result was initially delayed due to mix up of email addresses, the results were finally released on the 14th January 2007, and your e-mail attached to. Ticket number: 811141925 (2) (7) with Serial number: 4888/02, which drew the Lucky numbers: 41-6-76-13-45-8, which consequently won the lottery in the Second category of the year 2007. You are therefore approved. for a lump sum payout of 1,000,000.00 (ONE MILLION EUROS ONLY) in cash accredited to file reference number: KPC/9080333308/03 this is from atotal cash prize of 19,000,000.00 (NINTEEN MILLION EUROS ONLY)S hared among the nineteen international winners in this category.
Your fund is now deposited in a security company with your prize money insured in your e-mail. Due to mix up of some email addresses, we ask that you keep this award from public notice until your claim has been processed and money remitted to your account as this is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unwarranted abuse of this program by participants as it has happened in the past.
Allparticipantswere selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies,this promotiontakesplace. Annually. We hope your lucky email address will draw a bigger cash prize in the next high stake promotion agenda of 30,000,000.00 (THIRTY MILLION EUROS)
**********************************************************
To begin your lottery claim, please contact your claim agent,
AGRO CONSULTANCY AND SECURITIES S.L. MADRID SPAIN
DR.RICHARD ANTONIO ( Remittance/foreign operations manager)
Tel: +34 619693930
Email: agro.consultancy@yahoo.se
**********************************************************
For due processing and remittance of your winning prize money to designated account of your choice. Remember, all prize money must be claimed.(not later than 12st April 2007 After this date, this fund will bereturned to the MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y HACIENDA as unclaimed fund.
NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delay and complication, pleaseremember to quote your reference and batch numbers in every correspondencewith your agent or us. Furthermore, should there be any change of yourcontact email address, do inform your claim agent as soon as possible.
Congratulation once again from all members of our staff and thank you for being part of our International promotion program. We wish you
continued good fortunes.
Yours Sincerely,
Wilfred Alberto (Lottery Director)
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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