Lottery Scams: You Have Won One Million Dollars!

I received an email saying that I had won a gift certificate for if I remember correctly, $1,000. worth of merchandise. The difference between that email which I did not believe and the type considered a scam was that I had actually entered the contest to win. In a scam email, you never even entered the lottery or sweepstakes, so how did you win without having entered?

I remember seeing Irish Sweepstakes Tickets when I was a child being secretly exchanged between adults. They were supposed to be illegal being from another country and being sold in the US. I remember wondering how a person could possibly know if they won being so far away and how if they did would they ever get paid. Those days were long before lotteries were made legal in the USA as well as long before the Internet came along. However they managed to conduct International Lotteries at that time, I thought it was a lost cause.

These days you don't even have a ticket to hold. An email arrives that says you have won. Those who receive the email that says they are the winner, being so happy to win, don't consider that this win is something out of the blue. They never even entered a contest! Now, where is the scam? Your personal information and banking information are needed in order to send the money to you. In one version of the scam, you are going to have to pay taxes on the money before it is sent to you. Just send the money for the taxes to this person in Canada or England by Western Union.

Here is one of my winning emails received!

UNITED KINGDOM IN COLABRATION WITH GOLD MINING COMPANY.
LONDON MILLION INT & NATIONAL LOTTERY PROMOTION
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO,12th AVENUE KWAME NKRUMAH 01 BP .
WINNER- REF: LP/26510460037/03.
BATCH: 24/00319/IPE

www.acculotto.com

WINNING/AWARD FINAL NOTIFICATION

It is our pleasure to inform you of the declaration and of winners of the LONDON MILLION INT LOTTERY AWARD held on 18May2007. Having picked your mail address by our electronic web site visitors collectors in-recognition of your patronage to the Internet services.

In the final draw,your name was attached to ticket number 6325698-44596-222,

with serial number 410-32659,draw lucky numbers 4014-236985744-596 which consequently won in the 2nd category.

You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of

($850,000.00 Eight Hundred and fifty Thousand dollars), In cash accredited file No:LP/26510460037/03. This is from a Total Cash Prize of

($15 000 000 FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS) shared among the 22 International Countries in this category. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 25,000 names from Africa, Australia, New Zealand, America,Europe,North America and Asia as part of International Promotions Program that is conducted annually to encourage the use of Internet and Internet based programs.

We are delighted to express our heartfelt congratulations to you.

We hope that with a fraction of your wining money,you will be able to assist the less privilege in your society and also participate in our next year high stakes promotions of $US10 Billion International Lottery.

For your information on how you will start the Processing and remittance of your prize money to your account, Please contact the claiming Manager stated below to receive your winning Money immediately:

Mr. MICHEAL JOSEPH.

Email: lotteuk_claiming_office@yahoo.com,claimsukbf@gawab.com

Remember,all prize money must be claimed not later than 28th/MAY/2007.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in every one of your correspondences with us or to our coordinate sponsor's bank. Should there be any change of your address, do inform the Claiming Manager to process your transaction as soon as possible.Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to disqualification.

!!!CONGRATULATION!!!

Congratulations from all our staff

We wish you continued good fortunes.

Best Wishes.

The Management,

Lottery Organisation.

I am so impressed! My luck is just overflowing. Here is another winning email that I received!

Yahoo/Msn Lottery Incoporation

Baley House, Har Road Sutton,

Greater London SM1 4te.

United Kingdom.

Dear Winner,

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Four hundred and fifty thousand Great Britain Pounds Sterlings(£450,000.00) for the month of MAY 2007 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO/MSN INC & WINDOWS LIVE.

YAHOO/MSN & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five(5) people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for your email address has been selected along side four(4) others to be the lucky winners for this month's edition.

You are to contact the claims officer for further instructions towards your claiming, Winners Shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Centre.Yahoo/Msn Lottery Prize must be claimed no later than 10 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize was won, any prize not claimed within this period will be assumed forfeited by the beneficiary.

The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:

(i) Winning Serial Number: 900-102-447

(ii) Email Ticket Number: UK754/22/76

(iii)Lotto Code Number: TL09622UK

(iv) File Ref Number: ICA/11-GIS/2006UK

N.B: Steps to claiming your prize:

1. Contact your claims officer immediately you receive this notification to begin the claims

process.

2. Do please quote your Draw File reference number, Lotto code number and Winning serial numbers in any correspondence with our appointed claims officer. you are required to send your full name(s) as it should appear on the Certificate of Winning that would be issued to you, and fill the below Private Information about you When contacting the claims officer. This is very

important;

1. FULL NAMES: ________________________________

2. ADDRESS, CITY, STATE, ZIPICODE: ________________

3. SEX: ________________________________________

4. AGE: _______________________________________

5. MARITAL STATUS: ___________________________

6. OCCUPATION: _______________________________

7. COMPANY: _____________________ B. POSITION HELD:

8. HAVE YOU A PASSPORT OR LICENSE: ____________ (for identification on

delivery)

9...E-MAIL ADDRESS: ____________________________

10. TELEPHONE NUMBER: ________________________

11. COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE: ___________________________

(CONTACT CLAIMS OFFICER)

Name: Mr. Clinton Moore

Email: clintonmoore_claimsofficerdept@yahoo.co.uk

Tel: +44 703 590 2146

Thank you and Accept my hearty congratulations once again!!!

Yours faithfully,

Mrs.Lillian Hunt

(Yahoo/Msn Lottery Games/Lottery Coordinator).

My ship has come in! As you can see phishing for personal information is a part of the you are going to get something for nothing scheme. I should feel blessed. If you get emailed letters like these however, you had better feel very cautious. Here is one more example.

UK LOTTERY PROGRAM

DEAR SIR/MADAM,

We are pleased to inform you about the result of our Lottery DRAWS HELD on the 27/08/2006 and anouced on 14/05/2007. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 27522465896-532 with serial number 652-662 drew lucky numbers 7-14-18-23-31-45 which consequently won in the 1st category. you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay of US$1.3Million note that All participants in this lottery program have been selected randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 200,000 companies and 400,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and web sites.

This promotional program takes place every year, and is promoted and sponsored by eminent world personalities like the (SULTAN of Brunei, Bill Gates of microsoft inc and other corporate organisations). This is to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide. For security purpose and clarity, (we advise that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims have been processed and your money remitted to you.) This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.We look forward to your active participation in our next year USD500 million slot.You are requested to contact our LOTTERY COORDINATOR:

MR.AKIM JONES

Phone:+44-7031964630

Email: akimjones70@yahoo.co.uk

Website: www.interlottery.com

All winnings must be claimed not later than 30/05/2007. Please note, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, remember to quote your WINNING NUMBERS SERIAL numbers and TICKET numbers in all correspondence. Furthermore, if should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations once more and thank you for being part of our promotional program. You are required to reply to this email: akimjones70@yahoo.co.uk for further details.

NOTE: YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED IF YOU ARE BELOW 18 YEARS OF AGE.

Sincerely yours,

Mrs. Mary Bell. (Secretary)

In order to get the prize, you will have to engage in correspondence designed to reel you in and to make a kill. There will be some point where it will be necessary for you to come up with some money before the prize can be released to you. Taxes, shipping or fees for some good reason money is going to have to come out of your pocket or bank account and pertinent information is going to have to be exchanged. You put yourself at risk for identity theft or a banking scam. The desire to get the big prize is enough to reel anyone in.

I mentioned having entered a real contest at the start. I was employed at an educational institution at the time. The website where I entered the contest was at www.ccvsoftware.com where one winner was chosen each month from entries. I knew that I had entered their monthly contest un like the scams which I had not entered. When I received the winning email announcement, I responded and asked how to redeem my emailed prize coupon. The customer service representative sent a catalog. I did not believe it until the OCR Full Page Scanner, 8mm Sony Video Camera and Palm Pilot that I had chosen were delivered to my office.